UNSUNG HEROES - EPISODE 1: POPIELUZSKO (Poland)

Jerzy Popieluszko (1947-1984) - Martyr to Freedom

Jerzy Popieluszko was an ordinary priest in a working-class Warsaw parish. A thin, shy man with a soft voice, he did not exactly fit the profile of political agitator or charismatic leader. Yet in the early 1980s, he and his angelic face shook up the government of the People’s Republic of Poland, which was not a republic and did not belong to the people. He was 37 years old, and he called himself “a friend of the truth.” His sermons were condemnations of the communist regime, the omnipotence of the single party, martial law, and the absence of freedom. He was merely one of thousands of priests, but he was annoying the regime. He had to be silenced.

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