For Immediate Release

June 7, 2010

Wrzesnewskyj memorializes Father Jerzy Popieluszko, Blessed Aloysius Stepinac and other East European Catholic martyrs of communism

Ottawa – Today, Liberal M.P. Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre) bowed his head in remembrance of the life and example of Father Jerzy Popieluszko who was beatified yesterday at a Mass in Warsaw, Poland, that was attended by close to 150,000 faithful.

“In 1935 Stalin mocked the Catholic Church declaring: ‘How many [military] divisions has the pope?’ Lenin’s and Stalin’s evil empire, using armies of informants, agents, torturers and murderers, went on to exterminate tens of millions of people and for three generations caused the suffering of hundreds of millions. Yet the people’s faith maintained their belief that the evil, with its diabolical divisions, would be overcome. Today, the Soviet Union is no more and we beatify another Catholic martyr in that struggle against evil,” stated Wrzesnewskyj.

Earlier today on the floor of the House of Commons, Wrzesnewskyj paid tribute to Blessed Popieluszko, Blessed Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, as well as the long list of martyred Catholic clergy who were cruelly mocked, persecuted, tortured and, in some cases, murdered by the communist secret police apparatus behind the Iron Curtain in Central and Eastern European countries.

House of Commons Debates

Statements by Members

Monday, June 7, 2010

3rd Session • 40th Parliament • Volume 145 • Number 057

Father Jerzy Popieluszko

Mr. Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday, worldwide, Polonia celebrated the beatification of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, the Catholic priest who in the 1980s ministered to Solidarity workers at the Huta Warszawa steelworks.

An unassuming pastor, Father Popieluszko did not shirk his responsibility to minister his flock when Polish workers began to organize the Solidarność Union. In sermons he defended national and human rights. For this he suffered detentions and interrogations. Finally, in 1984, after leading Mass he was kidnapped by Communist secret police and 11 days later his tortured body, bound and gagged was dredged from a reservoir.

Today, along with Polonia we bow our heads in Solidarność,  remembering Father Popieluszko and the long list of martyred Catholic clergy—Polish Cardinal Wyszyński, Ukrainian Cardinal Slipyj, Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty, Croatian Cardinal Stepinac, Czech Cardinal Beran, and Slovak Bishop Gojdič—who suffered torture and even death at the hands of the evil ideology of communism.

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