In 1987, Poland’s former communist secret service assassinated one of the country’s dissident priests. Ongoing investigations revealed that the then 65-year-old had been poisoned. The communists saw the pastor as a great threat.
Priest Franciszek Blachnicki was charismatic and reached many young people, Poland’s justice minister said on Tuesday. The pastor settled in Carlsberg in the district of Bad Dürkheim in 1982 after martial law was declared in Poland (1981). There he founded an organization dedicated to the liberation of Eastern Europe from the communist regimes. When he died suddenly in 1987, the researchers initially assumed a natural cause.
It wasn’t until decades later that clues to a possible murder began to grow. According to the latest investigations by the Polish authorities, Reverend Franciszek Blachnicki was poisoned at the age of 65 in Carlsberg, Rhineland-Palatinate. The communist secret service, which saw the pastor as a great threat, would be responsible for this. Kathpress reported this on Tuesday.
Beatification imminent?
The body was recovered from a crypt in 2020. According to prosecutor Andrzej Pozorski, investigations have been carried out in Poland, Germany, Austria and Hungary. In the Catholic Church, there has been a process of beatification for priests since 1995. Pope Francis said in 2015 that Blachnicki lived the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love in an exemplary manner under the circumstances of the time. However, a miracle or martyrdom would still have to be proven for beatification.
Poland’s bishops said on Tuesday that the results of the investigation into Blachnicki’s death show how “complicated” Poland’s communist era had been.
Source: Krone
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