POPE FRANCIS ACCEPTS RESIGNATION OF POLISH ARCHBISHOP ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ABUSE COVERUP

Archbishop Andrzej Dzięga. Warsaw, March 2019. Photo. Episkopat.pl

Sun 25 February 2024:

A Polish archbishop who was accused of covering up child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church resigned, and Pope Francis accepted his resignation, Vatican statement said on Saturday.

“Holy Father Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Andrzej Dziega from serving as Archbishop Metropolitan of Szczecin-Kamien,” Poland’s apostolic nunciature, the equivalent of an embassy for the Vatican, said on its website.

Dziega, 71, is a Polish Roman Catholic bishop and the incumbent archbishop of the Archdiocese of Szczecin-Kamien.

The TVN24 news channel’s documentary in 2021 alleged that priest Andrzej Dymer, who died that year, had abused children and that the archbishop of the diocese of Szczecin-Kamień, Andrzej Dzięga, had known since 1995 but taken no action.

A statement on the website of the Szczecin-Kamień archdiocese also said Archbishop Dzięga was retiring.

Neither of the statements referred to the accusations against Archbishop Dzięga, who had served as Archbishop Metropolitan of Szczecin-Kamień since 2009.

TVN24 has reported that after the documentary, Archbishop Dzięga had dismissed Fr Dymer from his position as director of a medical institute in Szczecin in northwest Poland.

Polish media reported that in 2008 Fr Dymer was convicted by a church tribunal of sexually abusing minors. Fr Dymer appealed but the appeal was not dealt with before his death.

One of Europe’s most devoutly Catholic countries, Poland has seen a string of child abuse scandals, with the church saying two years ago that between 1 July 2018 and 31 December 2020, it received 368 reports regarding abuse of minors.

According to 2021 census data, 71% of the population consider themselves Catholic.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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