Prayers offered for priest’s release

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 6

Prayers offered for priest’s release

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw A round-the-clock prayer vigil began at a Warsaw church yesterday for the safe return of a politically dissident Catholic priest who was kidnapped on Saturday. The . disappearance of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, an outspoken opponent of Communist rule in Poland, has shaken supporters of the banned Solidarity .free trade union, who fear that his life is in danger. The abduction has embarrassed the Government, which is welcoming today the Greek Prime Minister, Dr Andreas Papandreou, as the first N.A.T.O. leader to visit Poland since Solidarity was suppressed under martial law three years ago. State television said that Father Popieluszko, was seized by three men who stopped his car in the countryside north-east of Warsaw. The incident was kept secret for nearly 24 hours and Masses for the priest were said by supporters throughout the day when his disappearance became known. The Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, went to St Stanislaw’s Church in Warsaw — where Father Popieluszko regularly preached patriotic sermons in support of the union —

and warned his abductors against harming him. “If so much as a hair of Father Jerzy’s head is harmed, someone will have taken a very great responsibility upon himself,” Mr Walesa told the congregation. “Such things should not happen in our country.” The Government recently amnestied Father Popieluszko on charges of slandering the State in his sermons. The Polish Episcopate maintained an official silence on the abduction. Church sources indicated that the bishops were in close touch with the Interior Minister, Lieutenant-Gen-eral Czeslaw Kiszczak. The authorities emphasised that they were making every effort to find Father Popieluszko, whose health is known to be frail. The official news media broadcast constant appeals for information on the abduction. Dr Papandreou’s visit has been hailed by the Government as evidence that Poland’s diplomatic isolation from the West since martial law is ending.