An activist from Obywatele RP, Prof. Magdalena Pecul-Kudelska, hung a rainbow flag yesterday evening on the pedestal of a statue of Christ standing outside the Holy Trinity Church in Warsaw. It was the same statue to which young activists had attached a rainbow flag a week earlier.
After a moment, Rev. Damian Konieczny from Bolesławiec approached the flag and threw it down from a height of several metres onto the pavement. The flag almost hit a passing cyclist. The moment was captured in a photograph by Oko.press.
After the Bolesławiec priest threw down the flag, Wojciech Kinasiewicz from Obywatele RP picked it up and placed it back on the pedestal. Another man then appeared, said that he was a priest, took the flag from the pedestal and trampled on it. Damian Konieczny shouted at the police officers: “Block them, don’t let them come in. We don’t want this!”
You can watch this situation in the video below.
At night, Rev. Damian Konieczny boasted on Facebook about what he had done in Warsaw. He wrote:
Today, at around 8 p.m., I witnessed another desecration of the statue of Christ in front of the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Warsaw... we had to react immediately... Jesus, forgive us these insults
Later, he boasted about receiving thanks from the parish priest of the parish where the monument stands:
To Rev. Damian Konieczny, with thanks for his vigilance and courage in defending Christ’s Cross, along with wishes for God’s protection and His blessing.
Rev. Robert Berdychowski
After we asked for comment, both Facebook posts stopped being publicly visible, and Rev. Damian Konieczny replied that he would not comment on the incident.
We managed to speak with Wojciech Kinasiewicz, who, after Damian Konieczny threw down the flag, picked it up and placed it on the monument’s pedestal.
“I do not understand something called ‘offending religious feelings,’ and certainly it does not authorise anyone to commit any kind of aggression. Throwing anything down is simply an act of vandalism. Even if this flag hurts someone, pain serves a certain function. We know how it is with physical pain: it signals that something is wrong with the body. I think spiritual pain is similar. The soul hurts in order to signal that something is not right. This should be the beginning of reflection: what hurts me, and why does it hurt me? Not parading one’s pain. One must find the source of the illness. Relieving the pain by throwing down a flag leads nowhere,” Wojciech Kinasiewicz told istotne.pl Wojciech Kinasiewicz. “A priest who is Christ’s representative, and who suffered, should know this especially well. Jesus did not break the cross He carried. He carried it. If the flag hurts the priest, he should place a cross with a rainbow flag on his shoulders and carry it. That is his role, not throwing it down. If it hurts him, then all the more should he take that pain upon himself, because that is what Christ did. Besides, Jesus was crucified for offending religious feelings,” Wojciech Kinasiewicz added.
As we have already written, Rev. Damian Konieczny did not want to comment on the matter.