Polish priest accused of financial misappropriation released on bail

WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) — Father Michal Olszewski, priest of the Polish branch of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, was released from his detention center on bail Oct. 25 after the order paid $90,000.

Father Olszewski, a well-known retreat minister, author from southern Poland and former exorcist, was arrested March 26 simultaneously as Internal Security Agency officials raided Sacred Heart houses as part of an investigation of the order’s receipt of grants from the previous government, which had been in power until Dec. 13, 2023.

In a Feb. 8 OSV News interview before his detention, the priest said his Profeto foundation had won a bid for $10 million in 2020 from Poland’s Justice Fund to build Archipelago, a center for abuse victims, and had put a further $2.5 million of the order’s own money into purchasing the land in Warsaw’s Wilanów suburb.

He added that accusations the foundation lacked experience in helping victims were “completely unfounded.”

According to prosecutors, the foundation run by the priest did not meet the formal and substantive requirements to receive money from the ministry. The charges against Father Olszewski and two female officers of the ministry, working for the previous government, simultaneously arrested and now released along with the priest, were changed by the prosecution from “abuse of trust” to “misappropriation of entrusted property” on Oct. 22.

Campaigns to release Father Olszewski from detention from his supporters became more and more prominent especially after a letter published early July, where Father Olszewski said he had been humiliated, and denied water and toilet access during his arrest.

On Oct. 18, however, the Warsaw-Mokotów court ruled that “the suspect’s detention was legitimate, legal and properly conducted.”

The priest’s attorneys and commentators in Poland raised concerns however that a long solitary confinement of Father Olszewski is an exaggeration, meant to “extract” information — something called the “extractive detention,” by Polish legal experts.

“Why are those suspected of worse things treated better?” asked Marta Lysek, editor of Jesuit-run Deon media.

“If Father Olszewski actually committed a crime, then for goodness sake, he is not, after all, a serial killer, rapist, assassin, or member of a gang that threatens people. This is a money-oriented case in which, if anyone has suffered at all, it is the state budget,” she wrote.

Visibly moved and in tears after leaving the detention center in Warsaw, Father Olszewski told the crowd gathered: “I would like to thank everyone. They said it was an extractive detention, but it was extractive in the sense that your prayers brought me out.”

Father Olszewski’s parents were present to greet him, visibly shaken.

Father Carlos Luis Suarez Codorniú, superior general of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, or Dehonians, said in a Sept. 11 interview with OSV News that while the news of the Polish priest’s detention “obviously saddened us enormously,” he was “especially saddened by the way we heard that (Father Michal) was treated or experienced these first moments” under arrest.

The line between supporters and opponents of Father Olszewski is drawn along the lines of political support of the current opposition — Law and Justice — and the ruling party — the Civic Coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Mocking the priest coming out of custody, Newsweek Poland’s Jakub Korus wrote Oct. 25: “The crown of thorns will now be shown on TV, perhaps the camera will also capture the stigmata of tormented right-wing saints.”

Lysek of Jesuit-run Deon believes the case is being politicized by the current government.

“The issue is political, the solicitation is hardcore, the determination of the authorities to show what they can afford and how much they can bend the law is outstanding,” she wrote.

Polish bishops have not spoken up regarding the case of Father Olszewski since his arrest.

For Lysek, that is also telling, saying “that silence is getting hard to take.”

Father Olszewski will now stay in the premises of his order, and his priestly ministry “will not be restricted,” spokesman of the Polish province of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, Father Wlodzimierz Platek, told Polish Press Agency Oct. 25.

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