Church and state

This is probably true of any neighborhood in Warsaw, but in Zoliborz (jolie-borzh), a leafy enclave where red-cheeked children and even dogs smile as you pass, and where I have chosen to stay for the next 336 hours, it took me all of eighty paces to be reminded of Poland's painful history. This will be a throughline during my two-week visit, and there's no sense it in dismissing it as an idolation of suffering or sour grapes, or whatever the deniers are coming up with these days.

On its own, the Church of St. Stanislaw Kostka would be worth seeing for its Modernist open-work twin tower. Like a hand in a glove, it fits the surrounding neighborhood, which was built up between the world wars. 

But it is best known as the resting place of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a priest connected to the underground Solidarity movement of the 1980s. He talked about communist repression and asked only that Poles "overcome evil with good." Seen as a political threat by the ruling communist party, he was kidnapped in October 1984 by the secret police and beaten to death with a rock. His funeral on this spot was attended by upward of 1 million people, which sounds crazy. But when you Google the photos, it seems plausible. No single photograph captures the entire crowd; only a helicopter or hot-air balloon may have been able to produce an encompassing view. Lech Walesa attended. Thatcher, Bush Sr. and Pope John Paul II all came to pay their respects. 

Four perpetrators were sent to prison. All were released before their terms were up. The instigator of the murder is unknown. Whatever kind of rotting corpse the Catholic Church is today, Father Jerzy was one of the good guys. His cross-shaped tomb is at right.