Priest’s Accuser Revealed as Fraud

29.06.2019

2019 has been a horrendous year for the Catholic Church in Poland, as a series of revelations of abusive priests shocked and angered the country. Last February, at the Vatican conference on clerical abuse, Pope Francis received the three leaders of Have No Fear, a group formed to publicise the clerical abuse scandals and episcopal denial and cover-up in the Church. The president and founder of the group, Marek Lisinski, handed the Pope a 27-page report naming the guilty parties. Lisinski came to prominence when he accused Fr Zdzisław Witkowski in 2010 of sexually abusing him some 30 years previously, when he was a 13-year-old. He sent his complaint to Bishop Piotr Libera of the diocese of Plock, some 50 miles West of Warsaw. In spite of an initial judgement of innocence, Bishop Libera caved in to the public pressure of a major campaign against the priest who was suspended and found guilty of some atrocious crimes. Lisinski then became a leading voice for the

victims of clerical abuse in Poland. That was until some journalists began to investigate his less publicised activities. Thanks to their work, Lisinski was found to be motivated by financial gain, extracting payments in return for his promised silence. Fr Witkowski was found to be totally innocent. Lisinski’s fabricated his accusations to avoid repaying a large sum of money he had borrowed from the priest, and Bishop Libera had acted without justice and responsibility.