The Piarist school in Bolesławiec is a respected institution, but it has not been lucky with the religious members who teach there. The school's first headmaster, Father Adam Langhammer, made no secret of his homophobic views. From the school's phone, he posted offensive comments with a sexual undertone about a "depraved night of f*ggots." He did so anonymously and, once exposed, had to apologize publicly.
In light of the above, it is ironic that his fellow religious member was Father Piotr, who met men for orgies in European cities.
As a graduate of the Piarist school in Bolesławiec wrote to us, there were rumors that Father Piotr, who was liked by the students, met men for sex, but the students did not want to believe it.
The school's next headmaster, Father Marek Kudach , claimed that he knew nothing about it. For a year, he did nothing with the information we provided. He believed that we should give him the religious member's first and last name. We never did. Instead, we published an article titled A Piarist from Bolesławiec Leads a Double Life. He Passionately Talks About His Erotic Travels. Only then did the order identify within four days the religious member we had written about. The order gave his first and last name.
Recording of the film “Virtue and the Body”
He worked with children and young people at the Piarist school in Bolesławiec for five years. The religious member at the center of our story is a Piarist, Father Piotr—or Pioter, as he was known to his gay acquaintances on dating websites.
When Pioter appeared online in 2013, no one knew that the person seeking partners near Bolesławiec was a clergyman who would begin working at a nearby school. Young and handsome, he selected sexual partners. They had to be physically attractive and very well built. No one expected the young Piarist to change so much on dating websites and, several years later, to record videos of orgies in which he regularly participated. Father Piotr: on the one hand, a clergyman and teacher at a religious school; on the other, a sexually active man leading an intense erotic life.
In conversations with the Piarist that we conducted undercover for several months, the religious member used casual language, flirted and directly invited us to sexual encounters. He repeatedly declared that he was ready for “all-night and all-day fun,” and described situations in which he had been “f***ed by a couple from Munich” or “fisted in a hotel in Berlin.”
The religious member also sent us video recordings of orgies in which he participated. He sent them to arouse a potential partner and encourage him to meet. In one message, the religious member wrote, pleased with himself: “Guess what I’m doing in Lisbon? Visiting a museum of the history of dicks and asses.” He also asked about long chemsex sessions.
Chemsex is a broad field and a general term for having sex after taking psychoactive substances. It is gaining popularity today. It generally involves sex after taking stimulants such as mephedrone, cocaine or amphetamine, intended to increase pleasure and excitement while reducing certain inhibitions that may arise during sex. Chemsex can happen to anyone, although there is some truth to the stereotype that it is primarily associated with homosexual men. Research shows that it most often occurs in sexual relations between two men, including men who sometimes have sex with women, but it is still most commonly practiced in male-male relationships. It is difficult to say why. One reason may be that it reduces inhibitions that can arise between two, especially unfamiliar, men. It may also be related to the environment surrounding the use of particular dating applications and particular materials—something like a cultural trend or a certain cultural pattern.
Tomasz Kwieciński
Father Piotr is a charismatic clergyman who loves working with young people. His former students write that he had an incredibly good rapport with them, was always ready with a kind word, knew how to communicate with and support them.
What I like about working with young people is also—and perhaps this will sound unpleasant—that I see the results of my ministry and feel needed. All the conversations and meetings, whether formative or less formal, make me see how they develop, shape their personalities and character, and mature. Above all, I believe.
Father Piotr
The Piarist describes his life in simple terms.
It starts every day at six in the morning—except on the days when I oversleep and it starts a little later. At six thirty, morning prayer. You may get up at about that time. Some breakfast. For me, it is the confessional and the Eucharist. Then you go to school. I go to school too. One lesson. A second lesson. A break. Conversations with colleagues, with female colleagues; time spent among students and with other teachers. Then I return. Other activities. Preparing classes, in my case for the university chaplaincy. You probably sit down to your lessons. And so it goes, day after day. From time to time, something extra comes up.
Father Piotr
On the dating application where the religious member sought sexual partners, we posed as an attractive man. We wrote in English. The religious member took the bait. He did not say he was a priest. He claimed to work for an events company. At the same time, he meticulously planned meetings with us, suggesting, among other things, renting an apartment in Kraków or Wrocław. He declared that he was ready for sex. His language was vulgar.
“Let me know beforehand so I can take time off work, just in case,” he wrote to us in messages, adding: “You can f**k me all day and night.” During one conversation, he mentioned nights spent with a couple from Germany: “They were both great f**kers. We spent the whole night and almost the entire day together.”
During our conversations with the religious member, we also received video recordings. The clergyman recorded himself and his partners during orgies. The films were made in hotels in Berlin, Lisbon and Kraków. They show men who do not care about privacy during group sex. In one film, Father Piotr can be seen leaning out of an open window overlooking a street in Berlin during intercourse.
People who want to become clergymen, priests or spiritual guides really have no choice. They will have to take everything as a package, and we can imagine that someone might want to live in celibacy. These are so-called asexual people, who simply do not have such needs, and in that case celibacy is not a problem. Much more often, however, we can imagine a situation in which someone is not entirely asexual but, for some reason, has chosen this spiritual path—the one that in our culture is essentially the only popular option. They are then effectively forced to at least attempt to live in celibacy.
Tomasz Kwieciński
After gathering the material, in May 2025 we published an article titled “A Piarist from Bolesławiec Leads a Double Life.”
We created the piece with the maxim of Father Stanisław Konarski, the school's patron and a reformer of Polish education, in mind: “Make every effort, educating the heart—with virtues, the mind—with learning, the body—with exercise.”In this way, we wanted to highlight the contrast between Father Piotr's life as a Piarist teacher and the goals of a Catholic school. Those goals are to shape students so that they love the truth, align their lives with the faith they profess, and draw their education from a Christian system of values. A Piarist school is, by definition, a place of evangelization.
There is such a deep rift—a Mariana Trench—between the public role and private life. It is actually difficult even to grasp in moral terms that someone could so strongly oppose the values they proclaim, values they essentially impose on other people because they preach them and presumably proclaim them in the confessional. So it is hypocrisy, but in my opinion it is also a kind of total moral disorientation. In other words, without any inhibitions and without making much effort to hide it, I publicly do exactly the opposite of what I preach, including as a teacher, catechist or teacher at a Catholic school. It is simply outrageous. I wonder whether such a clergyman considers that one of his students might find him on a gay website, come across some of his photographs or see videos being circulated. What would that student think about the entire system this priest represents? About the Catholic Church and its moral teaching? Calling it hypocrisy is an understatement.
Jacek Kochanowski
After the article was published, the school headmaster sent us an email. In it, he defended the school's image: (…) Linking the image (a photograph of the building) in the article with information about the religious member's homosexual activity harms the school community: teachers, students and parents. As headmaster, I cannot agree to this.(…) The headmaster was also outraged by the photographs included in the article. He called them “pornographic” and asked (…) that evidence be provided.
At the same time, he sent parents a statement attacking the editorial team. He said that the article about the religious member's scandalous life was illustrated with a photograph of the school building, thereby striking at the entire community. He stated that this was a deliberate attempt by journalists to interfere with recruitment to the school.
City councillor Łukasz Molak, a church minister and secretary at the Piarist school from 2012 to 2016, also came to the school's defense. Molak also organizes marches for life and the family. He promotes and creates homophobic content online, including content opposing health education. He edited and distributed the letter from the school's Parents' Council defending the school.
(…) the conduct described in the article is also unacceptable and scandalous for us –we read in the anonymous parents' letter. – But attempting to link it to children and Catholic education is sheer vileness and media manipulation.(…) This article is an attacking and defamatory media piece targeting the school community, full of vulgarities, descriptions of sexual practices and disgusting content, illustrated with pornographic photographs available without any age controls. We demand that the Istotne.pl editorial team: immediately remove the scandalous photographs; stop publicly associating the school with the case presented; and publish an official apology to the school community of the Piarist School in Bolesławiec.
Nearly a year before our article was published, the school headmaster knew about the suspicious behavior of one of the Piarist teachers. He took no action, however. Istotne.pl editor Krzysztof Gwizdała spoke personally with the school headmaster after the film “What Priests Do When They Take Off Their Cassocks” was published in August 2024. We also have an email from the headmaster in which, after the film was published, he again defended the school's image.
(…)At the eighth minute of the film, the following words are spoken: “We know that one of the religious members regularly advertises on gay dating websites.” The wording clearly suggests that this concerns a religious member currently working at the school. I declare that I have no information about this.(…)
Journalist Krzysztof Gwizdała on the conversation with the headmaster
The headmaster sent us a letter expressing outrage—outrage that we had shown the school. I thought, well, I will simply come and talk to him face to face. We talked about LGBT people and the Church's approach to such people. The headmaster, for example, believes that being LGBT is like having a disability, as if one did not have a left arm. I told the headmaster that this was nonsense, that it was more like being right- or left-handed: most people are right-handed, but some are left-handed. It is that kind of difference, not a disability. I then decided to tell him that among his teachers there was a religious member associated with the school who met other men for sex. When I spoke with the headmaster, he did not seem particularly surprised by the information that one of the religious members met people for sex. However, he kept saying that in order to take action, he needed to know the person's first and last name. The result was that a year after our conversation, nothing had happened. Only after the article was published—although we did not provide the religious member's personal details or say who he was—did the order somehow manage to identify him within three days. On the fourth day, we received information that they knew who it was; they provided his first and last name themselves and wrote that he would no longer be in Bolesławiec.
Krzysztof Gwizdała, Istotne.pl journalist
The provincial superior forbade Father Piotr from celebrating Mass and wearing the habit.The editorial office began receiving thanks for our work. Former students of Father Piotr wrote to us. They recalled their education at the Piarist school positively and had a good opinion of Father Piotr. They also wrote that information about the Piarist's double life had reached them, but they did not want to believe it. Here is an excerpt from one message:
I simply want to thank you very much for the good work. Such practices absolutely must not take place. We cannot allow such matters to be swept under the rug. Great applause for your courage; I hope the case will receive even more publicity!
The school headmaster sent parents an email apologizing:
(…) with sadness and deep shame, I confirm that the religious member described in the Bolesławiec media (…) is Father Piotr W. (…) We trust that Father Piotr's unworthy behavior concerned only his private life, and not his priestly work or the Piarist community in Bolesławiec(…). However, if anyone knew about such behavior or simply needed someone to talk to, please contact the Provincial Delegate for the protection of adults and minors. (…) Dear parents, we are very sorry that we failed to protect you and the children and young people entrusted to us from scandal. We sincerely apologize for disappointing your trust.(…) A few days after our publication, Father Piotr deleted his account on the dating application and messenger, but to this day he has an active Instagram profile where he displays his body.
We asked twice about the religious member's subsequent situation. In August 2025, we were informed that the explanatory proceedings were still ongoing and that the order would not comment until they concluded. We asked again about the outcome of the process in October 2025. On October 7, we were told that witnesses were still being questioned and that this would take about a month. The documents would then be sent to the appropriate Dicastery of the Holy See.Interview with Tomasz Kwieciński:
I suspect that some people, when entering the seminary, do not even try to pretend to themselves that they will observe this. For some reason, they choose this path. As someone who values authenticity in life and consistency with one's values, I find that somewhat incomprehensible. Why does someone swear, um, celibacy when they have no intention of observing it at all? Some of these people, however, lead a double life. I think a double life always does something to a person, although if someone prepares for it from the outset, then their main problem only begins when they are caught and it comes to light. I suspect that most of these people do not experience major pangs of conscience. Still, I would not say that it passes without consequences. Whenever we lie and live a double life, there will be consequences. I understand that if someone does it to save their homeland and is a double agent, there is some higher purpose behind it. But if it is simply done out of selfishness and lust—and there is nothing inherently wrong with lust or sexual desire—but if at the same time someone makes a vow, plays a role, wants to be worthy of trust, and meanwhile does things worthy of some pathology, then it must affect that person's psyche. At the very least, they are not a moral example that we should all follow or listen to.
Tomasz Kwieciński
According to the spokesperson for the Piarist Order, Father Piotr requested release from the obligations arising from priestly ordination and religious vows and is living as a private individual outside the religious house. He may not work as a priest, but from the moment he submitted the request he has been subject to no other restrictions.
The order's spokesperson did not provide the date on which Father Piotr submitted the request, although we asked.
Experts appearing in the film
Tomasz Kwieciński: transpersonal therapist and international personal-development trainer, author of the book “Follow the Call: Therapeutic Experiences in Expanded States of Consciousness” and creator of the “Psychedelic Therapy” podcast. One of the additional fields in which he works is accompanying people with chemical and/or behavioral addictions on their journey toward a conscious life free from addiction. His professional areas of therapeutic work include altered states of consciousness, integration of psychedelic experiences, transgenerational processes, religious trauma and spiritual crises
dr hab. Jacek Kochanowski: sociologist and philosopher, associate professor at the University of Warsaw, habilitated doctor of humanities and columnist. He works in the sociology of queer and gender. A human-rights activist, he focuses on LGBT discrimination and legal, political, social and economic discrimination against women.