“The parish priest explains that the man whose behavior on Friday provoked the indignation of many people was unknown to him, and he does not recall any previous encounter, let alone a conflict,” the parish announcements of St. Michael the Archangel in Mieścisko stated today. On Friday, the church there was trashed and the sanctuary desecrated.
Shocking scenes unfolded on Friday evening at the parish church of St. Michael the Archangel in Mieścisko (Greater Poland voivodeship/province).
A man entered the building bare-chested and began behaving aggressively toward the priest. He hurled insults, ordered the clergyman to leave, and started shoving him, at one point ripping the microphone away and throwing it toward the congregation. After a scuffle lasting several minutes, the aggressive man tore a cross from its place and used it to smash the altar, knocking down candles and liturgical vessels.
The man was taken into police custody.
“Bring the broken cross back into your church once again”
“I believe that, just as it pained me, it pained you as well—what happened last Friday in your parish church. The interrupted liturgy, the broken cross, the desecrated altar are realities that should never occur. Therefore I ask that this Sunday, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, you hold an expiatory service in your church,” wrote the Metropolitan of Gniezno, the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, in a special letter.