The event took place on Monday during a service celebrated by Fr. Michał Woźnicki in his cell converted into a chapel in the Salesian House in Poznan.
The clergyman lives there, although in August 2018 he was expelled from the Salesian Congregation for “persisting in persistent disobedience”. A trial is pending before the District Court in Poznań leading to his eviction. The priest is punishable by suspension, which means that he is not allowed to celebrate the sacraments. Nevertheless, the priest holds regular services.
This was also the case on Monday. As he informs “Gazeta Wyborcza”, there were nine people in a small room, including seven believers (the current restrictions allow the participation of one faithful per 7 m2). The Salesians called the police. The officers went inside after the mass and before the rosary service began, and then asked the priest and participants for ID cards.
– Sorry, this place hosts Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Please kneel down, said the priest.
– The Lord won’t give me orders. I would ask you and each participant for an ID card – replied one of the policemen.
“There is a rosary service right now,” said the priest. “Your face is veiled, I’m afraid that intruders or villains have invaded me,” he added, turning to the officer.
Police spokesman: Pathetic behavior
The clergyman and the altar boy who accompanied him did not respond to the officers’ orders, began to sing religious songs and then pray the rosary. Ultimately, the policemen took from the chapel-cell first the altar boy, and then the clergyman himself.
– How can you? What are you doing with the priest? – one of the women present at the service was indignant.
“Two people were brought to the police station because they refused to show their identity cards and give their personal details. It’s a normal matter. We have several of them every day. The behavior of these two people was pathetic. Instead of giving the police officers their name and undergoing a simple ID procedure, they chose the so-called passive resistance. So the case will go to court with a motion for punishment “- wrote the spokesman of the Voivodship Commander on Twitter. Police in Poznań, junior insp. Andrzej Borowiak.
In the evening, the Provincial Police Headquarters issued a statement in which it emphasized that “it was not the first notification, and in the last few months of the intervention there were at least a few”.
“Due to the considerable interest in the public opinion, the course of actions taken by the intervening officers will be thoroughly examined by the Control Department of the Police Headquarters in Poznań. Initial assessments do not indicate any irregularities on the part of the officers, but the activities carried out will allow for a reliable collection of explanations from all parties” – we read.
This is not the first police intervention in the case of Fr. Michał Woźnicki, which received wide coverage in the media. In May, the officers appeared in the open air during a mass celebrated by a clergyman in Poznań.
