18 million – that's how many viewers have already seen the Polish documentary about child abuse in the church on the Internet. Will Pope Francis now punish bishops' mistakes? This is what many Poles ask themselves.
The horror is great. A two-hour documentary has made many millions of Poles understand the whole life-long suffering of women and men who were sexually abused in their childhood by Catholic priests. At the same time, the documentary published on YouTube showed them how church leaders did not report perpetrators, but simply transferred them to another parish, where they could continue to deal with children.
Just don't tell anyone" has already been viewed more than 18 million times on the video platform since its launch last weekend.
No TV channel had wanted to broadcast the film by freelance journalist Tomasz Sekielski. Only the enormous interest caused a change in thinking. Major private broadcaster TVN picked up the documentary on short notice this Friday at 23.00 a.m. in his program on.
What does Francis do??
More and more Polish Catholics and commentators now want Pope Francis to take action against bishops who allegedly ignored or covered up abuse cases. "Are there resignations of bishops?? All hope on the pope", headlined the left-liberal newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza". The online portal "Wirtualna Polska" addressed by letter directly to the Vatican ambassador in Warsaw, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio. In it, the editors protest, among other things, "unacceptable reactions of clergy like the Archbishop of Gdansk Leszek Glodz".
The archbishop had brushed off a questioning TV reporter, dismissing the film as irrelevant: "I don't watch anything." Glodz apologized in an official statement three days later, saying he had "made a mistake in his choice of words".
In the name of Francis, the nuncio already briefly spoke out. "The pope is very concerned and expresses his sympathy and solidarity," Pennacchio said. The visit to Poland of the vice-head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, scheduled for mid-June, is eagerly awaited in Warsaw. On behalf of the pope, he investigates clerics who sexually abused minors.
Some Polish media recalled the more than 2.000-page report on the abuse scandal in Chile, which Scicluna presented to the pope in spring 2018. Later, almost all Chilean bishops offered their resignations.
This hint does not seem to have pleased the Polish Bishops' Conference. Their spokesman Pawel Rytel-Andrianik stressed that they had already invited Scicluna themselves in the summer of 2018. The bishops asked him, as an "expert in the field of the protection of children and adolescents," to lead a study day with them. He said they wanted to use "their experience and knowledge".
Critical media reports often vehemently rejected
In past years, some bishops had often vehemently rejected critical media reports, calling them an "attack on the Church". Filmmaker Sekielski, on the other hand, can be pleased about the positive reaction of the top of the Bishops' Conference. Presiding Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, in a written statement, thanked him for his film and apologized to all victims on behalf of the entire episcopate.
The film is also available on the Internet with English or Spanish subtitles. Asked by the news magazine "Polityka" if the Spanish subtitles were meant for the pope, Sekielski.
"That would be fantastic" if Francis, who is from Argentina, watched the film, he replied. He said he could already imagine it: "Pope Francis sitting in front of a laptop watching Sekielski. That would be something."
In February, Francis received representatives of the Polish victims' association "Do not be afraid" at the Vatican and kissed the hand of its founder Marek Lisinski. He had been abused by a priest for months when he was 13 years old. The pope has not yet responded to the 27-page abuse report handed to him. In it, 24 current and former bishops are accused of covering up abuse cases. The bishops reject this. They would have complied with all legal and Vatican regulations.