Was it right that three activists toppled the monument to the Solidarity chaplain? Can a monument be insulted? And what does the trial in this case look like, having begun on March 1, 2021—more than two years after the monument was toppled.
On the night of February 21, 2019, Rafał Suszek, Konrad Korzeniowski and Michał Wojcieszczuk put a noose around the neck of the prelate’s monument, levered up the pedestal and pulled until the monument fell onto rubber tires prepared in advance. They were intended to prevent damage to the monument, because, as they wrote in their manifesto, “the aim is to shatter the false and vile myth of Henryk Jankowski, not the material of his monument.” On the fallen monument, the men placed an altar boy’s outfit together with children’s underwear. The activists’ full statement can be read on the oko.press website.
The activists speak
Michał Wojcieszczuk:
- We waited two years for this trial. The judicial proceedings began, but took a rather surprising course. The court effectively prevented us from giving explanations, especially when accusations against the Church and the names of Prelate Jankowski or Archbishop Głódź came up. Our explanations were interrupted.
- I do not believe Jerzy Borowczak’s claim that, had he known what Prelate Jankowski had done, he himself would have dismantled his monument.
- Children who have been harmed are only able to talk about their trauma many years later. In court it turned out that this had no connection with the case. In my opinion, it does.
- The explanations we wanted to give were not given. Determining the degree of guilt when the accused were not allowed to give explanations is a serious matter.
- Many trials have taken place and are still taking place. This particular legal process is proceeding strangely, both logically and axiomatically.
- Jan, a punk poet, says: “To erase disgrace, you have to cast off the boulder.”
- My hope is that we will make our way through this process so that a community can finally emerge.
Rafał Suszek:
- This whole case is partly about the fact that the voices of victims of priests who are sexual abusers—editorial note—are absent from the public sphere.
- There has never been, and still is not, any place in the social sphere for the victims’ voices.
- Jankowski grew into a mythical figure.
- The accusation has two parts. It concerns insulting the monument and damaging property.
- Both accusations are unfounded.
- We did not insult this monument, because it cannot be insulted.
- Jankowski’s antisemitism is well documented. What more must be done in the country of the Holocaust to avoid ending up on a pedestal? Jankowski has 11 entries in the “Brown Book” of the “Never Again” Association.
- We also have thoroughly documented evidence of cooperation with the repressive apparatus of the Polish People’s Republic.
- Two prosecutorial proceedings against Henryk J., concerning the rape of minors, were scandalously discontinued.
- It was not our intention to destroy this monument. We did not destroy it.
A report by Bożena Aksamit in Gazeta Wyborcza in December 2018 revealed and documented that Father Jankowski had been sexually abusing children since the late 1960s. The investigative report was described in the article “The Secret of Saint Bridget’s. Why Did the Church Allow Priest Jankowski to Abuse Children for Years?” It also described other suspicions that Father Jankowski had committed acts of sexual abuse and allegations of the sexual abuse of minors. The article presented, among other things, an allegation that he had forced a 12-year-old girl to have sexual intercourse, as well as the story of the suicide of a pregnant 16-year-old who was allegedly abused by the priest.
According to Gdańsk cultural activist Lidka Makowska, knowledge of the priest Jankowski’s conduct toward minors was widespread in the Tri-City area as early as the 1990s. However, his social position and close contacts with people in power meant that no decisive action was taken to prevent it.