We wrote on May 16 and 17 about the tragic accident in Milików in which Łukasz Socha died. The 38-year-old moped rider left the road and struck a concrete pole. He died at the scene.

Łukasz Socha's funeral took place on May 21 without a priest, although the family wanted a Catholic funeral. Danuta Socha, the deceased's mother, told us that at first, on May 17, the priest from Gościszów did not want to bury her son.

– The priest said that he did not know my son, that he had not gone to church, that when he came on the pastoral visit, my son was never at home, and that he did not have him listed in his records. And yet he had normally received confirmation and First Communion. My son used to attend church, but later he lived in Gościszów. He was a believer, just perhaps not a practicing one – says Danuta Socha.

The priest from Gościszów admits that he did initially refuse and explains how the whole matter unfolded.

– On Monday, May 17, a man called me and said that his cousin had died, but nobody came to see me and nobody spoke to me in person. Nobody had the death certificate. When someone is buried, there must be a death certificate and a person to confirm that the entry has been made in the cemetery records. I did not learn about the funeral until Thursday. That night the family came with the death certificate because I said that if they buried him without an entry and without completing the formalities, they and I would have the prosecutor's office on our backs. The family members said that the funeral was scheduled for 12:00. I already had a meeting arranged in Legnica at 10:30. I told them to postpone the funeral a little so that I could get back in time, to 2:00 p.m., or even 1:30 p.m., and that in that case the ceremony would take place only at the cemetery. On Friday, however, I received an SMS saying that the funeral time could not be changed, that the funeral company had many services, and that the family was sorry – explains Rev. Janusz Wilk from Gościszów in a conversation with us.

Danuta Socha confirms that the priest said he could not come to the funeral earlier. – It did not suit us for it to be later, because we had already taken care of everything. I called the funeral company, but they said they could not change anything because they had a tight schedule – says the deceased's mother.

The woman adds that she tried asking the priest from Gierałtów to conduct the burial, but he also refused because she could not present a baptism certificate.

The funeral ultimately took place without a priest. The master of ceremonies said a few words, and the family prayed by themselves.

Rev. Janusz Wilk does not conceal his bitterness about the way the situation was described by the Bolec editorial team and the fact that they did not speak with him before publication.

– Editor Kazimierz called me. We began talking about the article, and I told him how it looked from my perspective. Then he started putting things together in his head and said that he would go to the office to delete the comments. In my opinion, that is dishonest. I used to conduct journalism training for young people and teach them accuracy. I never expected that someone could write an article in such a way as not to reach the source. It is sad for me, because you can ruin someone's life. At the end, Mr. Kazimierz told me that he would come to see me the next day to do some kind of interview. I replied that this is done before publication. Does the editor now want to argue with himself? What sense does that make?! – asks Rev. Janusz Wilk rhetorically.

Let us add that this is not the first time Bolec has failed to put sufficient effort into information about incidents. On May 11, Bolec reported falsely that shots had been fired on Spokojna Street in Bolesławiec, although in reality one man had sprayed another with pepper spray. Even though the Bolec editorial team had full knowledge of the matter that same day, it did not correct the information. It was changed only the following day, after our publication.