Archbishop Henryk Hoser (C) during talks with parishioners from Jasienica on Thursday. Photo: PAP/Gregorz Jakubowski
About 100 parishioners from the village of Jasienica near Warsaw had protested outside the headquarters of the Curia for the Warsaw-Praga diocese on Thursday, in an affair that has become symbolic of tensions between conservative and progressive voices in the Church.
“A good agreement was reached during the talks with parishioners, and dialogue will be continued,” Archbishop Hoser said.
Although the church in Jasienica will remain closed over Easter, the Curia has pledged that an auxiliary bishop will carry out the customary Easter Saturday blessings outside the church, and one open-air mass will be held on Easter Sunday.
Archbishop Hoser authorised the closure of the church on Tuesday, after parishioners protested against former rector Father Wojciech Lemanski being banned from saying mass in the church.
Lemanski had already been dismissed as rector of the parish in July 2013, but until last weekend, he had been able to continue holding one mass a week at 8am on Sundays.
The priest had called on the Church hierarchy to soften its rhetoric against IVF treatment, and according to Archbishop Hoser, Lemanski was originally dismissed for “a lack of respect and obedience to the bishops, as well as to the teaching of diocesan bishops in Poland on bioethics issues.”
However, Lemanski has long been a promoter of dialogue between Poles and Jews, and last year he claimed that his engagement in Jewish issues was at the root of the problem, but the Curia has denied this.
In a letter given to Archbishop Hoser yesterday, parishioners claimed that "during the six years he served as rector in Jasienica, Father Wojciech Lemanski built a community that should be a model for all Poland.”
Archbishop Hoser told parishioners that Father Lemanski's case will be handled by the Vatican, and that until the matter has been resolved, the priest must not reside in the parish.
“We parishioners have to remain quiet over this period,” said one of the leaders of the protest, Mariusz Dembinski, following the meeting.
“The door will remain closed to our church until there is peace and unity in our parish,” he reflected.
“Therefore, we want to make peace as soon as possible.”
Source: IAR