ROME (AP) — The pope on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop whose diocese has been rocked by reports of a gay orgy involving a male prostitute in a priest’s apartment, as well as previous violent incidents involving his clergy.
The Vatican didn’t give a reason for why Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning as head of the diocese of Sosnowiec, in southwestern Poland. At 59, he is several years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.
But his diocese has been in the spotlight again after one of his priests was placed under criminal investigation for having allegedly organized a gay orgy at his apartment in Dabrowa Gornicza involving a male prostitute. Polish media reported that one of the participants of the sex party collapsed after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills.
A prosecutor said the priest is suspected of “failing to provide assistance to a person whose life is at risk,” for having allegedly tried to bar paramedics from entering the apartment.
It wasn’t the first incident involving clergy in the diocese to make headlines, suggesting that the orgy scandal was the final straw for the Vatican. Pope Francis moved with unusual speed to remove Kaszak after the bishop said he offered to resign Sept. 29.
In 2010, the then-acting rector of the Sosnowiec seminary allegedly got into a scuffle at a gay club, but was allowed to remain in his job for over a year even after the case was publicized by Polish media. The Holy See finally intervened and dissolved the seminary altogether, according to the PAP news agency.
In March 2023, the corpse of a 26-year-old deacon was found with injuries suggesting homicide. Local prosecutors said he had been killed by a 40-year-old priest who then committed suicide. Prosecutors said the two had been in a conflictual relationship for some time and that the priest had sent the deacon threatening messages, PAP reported.
In a statement Tuesday, Kaszak said he had asked the pope to let him resign in a letter Sept. 29. He thanked the priests and nuns of his diocese and asked “everyone to forgive my human limitations.”
Kaszak was appointed bishop in 2009 by then-Pope Benedict XVI, after having served briefly as the No. 2 in the Vatican’s family office.
The diocese, which identified the priest involved in the purported orgy as Fr. Tomasz Z., has largely corroborated the media reports, saying an outside investigative commission concluded he committed “a very serious violation of moral norms,” as well as of his obligations as a priest.
Kaszak dismissed the priest from all functions on Sept. 21 and initiated an in-house canonical trial, the outcome of which could result in defrocking, or laicization, according to a statement on the diocesan website.
The priest has not been charged by Polish prosecutors. Polish media quoted a statement he issued soon after the scandal erupted, denying he had prevented paramedics from accessing his apartment and questioning the definition of “orgy.”
“I perceive this as an obvious attack on the church, including the clergy and the faithful, in order to humiliate its position, tasks and mission,” the priest was quoted in a statement he emailed to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
The Polish Catholic Church has been rocked for several years by allegations of sexual abuse of minors involving the clergy, scandals that have led to the forced resignations of several bishops and tarnished the church’s reputation in the homeland of St. John Paul II.
The Vatican embassy in Poland said a temporary administrator, Archbishop Adrian Galbas of Katowice, would run the diocese of Sosnowiec until a new bishop is named.
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Gera contributed from Warsaw.
