42 years ago, Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko celebrated a Mass in Bydgoszcz and led the prayer of the Rosary. No one could have thought that this would be his last Mass and last public prayer; therefore, his reflections on the mysteries of the Rosary take on a special significance, a kind of spiritual testament of the martyr of communism.

In the 1980s, Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko was one of the most hated and persecuted figures by the communist regime in Poland. The communist regime could not tolerate this priest who instilled courage into a society devastated by dictatorship, showing firmness and determination.

Everyone wanted to host him, although he himself was reluctant to travel. However, he accepted the invitation to visit the city of Bydgoszcz on Friday, October 19.

Fr. Jerzy, accompanied by his driver, arrived at the Church of the Holy Polish Brothers Martyrs in the early afternoon, and at 6:00 p.m. the Mass, officiated by four priests, began. The parish priest, Fr. Romuald Biniak, did not allow the guest to deliver a homily during the Mass, fearing that it might provoke retaliation from the authorities. He agreed only to let Fr. Jerzy give reflections during the recitation of the Rosary at the end of the Mass.

One of the priests, Fr. Osiński, to introduce the prayer of the Rosary, offered a supplication to Our Lady asking for Her help: “To us who are humiliated, more than once deprived of human rights and dignity, grant courage and perseverance! To us who do everything possible to renew the face of this land, of our Polish land, in the spirit of the Gospel, manifest your maternal protection, O Mary! To us, who with difficulty and toil struggle for truth, justice, love, peace, and freedom in our Fatherland, stretch out your hand!”

Instead, Fr. Popiełuszko presented his reflections regarding each of the five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. In the first, he touched upon the theme of freedom and human dignity. He quoted the words of John Paul II addressed to Our Lady of Jasna Góra: “I thank you, O Mother, for all those who remain faithful to their conscience, who fight against their weakness and strengthen others. I thank you, O Mother, for all those who do not let themselves be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” adding that “life must be lived with dignity, since it is only one! To preserve dignity in order to be able to increase good and overcome evil is to remain inwardly free, even under conditions of external oppression, and to remain oneself in every situation of life.”

In the reflection on the second mystery, Fr. Jerzy focused on injustice: “To preserve dignity in order to be able to increase good and overcome evil means letting oneself be guided in life by justice. Justice stems from truth and love. The more truth and love there are in a person, the greater justice is also present (…) It is important for a Christian to realize that the origin of justice is God Himself. It is difficult, therefore, to speak of justice where there is no room for God and His commandments, where the word God is officially eliminated from the life of the Nation. One must then realize the injustice and the harm done to our Nation, which is overwhelmingly Christian, when it is officially atheized with money obtained even from Christians: when those Christian values that were instilled in children and young people by their parents from the cradle, values that have endured multiple trials over the thousand years of our history, are destroyed in their souls. Working for justice and invoking justice are the duty of everyone without exception, because, as an ancient thinker once said, ‘ugly are those times in which justice stays silent.’”

In the following reflection, the priest addressed the question of truth and falsehood, stating that far fewer people tell the truth compared to those who lie. He also made reference to censorship in the Poland of Jaruzelski’s military-communist regime, emphasizing that even the speeches of Primate Wyszyński and Pope John Paul II were subject to interference. “We must learn to distinguish falsehood from truth. This is not easy in the times in which we live (…) It is not easy today, when censorship erased, especially in Catholic writings, true words and courageous ideas, when it erases even the words of the Primate, of the Holy Father. It is not easy when a Catholic is not only forbidden to fight hostile opinions, but is even forbidden to defend his own convictions (…) It is not easy when, over recent decades in our native land, the seed of falsehood and atheism has been sown. The Christian duty is to adhere to the truth, even if it were to cost much. For truth comes at a price.”

At the fourth mystery of the Rosary, Fr. Jerzy focused on the concept of power, emphasizing that a government that uses force is a government that “reduces its authority, impoverishes national life,” which in the end is weak: “To overcome evil with good, one must equip oneself with the virtue of courage. The virtue of courage is overcoming human weakness, especially that of dread and fear. A Christian must remember that one should only fear betraying Christ for a couple of silver coins of vain tranquility. It cannot be enough for a Christian merely to condemn evil, falsehood, cowardice, violence, hatred, and oppression; but he himself must be an authentic witness, spokesman, and defender of justice, good, truth, freedom, and love.” Thus began Fr. Jerzy, subsequently quoting the words of Card. Wyszyński: “Woe to the society whose citizens do not allow themselves to be guided by courage. They then cease to be citizens and become mere slaves. If a citizen renounces the virtue of courage, he becomes a slave and causes the greatest damage to himself, to his person, family, social group, nation, state, and Church.” “Therefore,” he concluded, “concern for courage should be in the interest of power as much as of the citizens.”

Fr. Jerzy’s last reflection concerned the Solidarność trade union, which was outlawed at the time. The chaplain of the union stated that the strength of this movement lay in the fact that it had formed without bloodshed and that people had been united through common prayer of the Rosary: “Solidarność amazed the world so quickly because it did not fight with violence, but on its knees, with the Rosary in hand. Before field altars, it claimed the dignity of human labor, dignity and respect for man. It claimed these values far more than daily bread.” He recalled again the words of Card. Wyszyński, who spoke of various forms of worker oppression. In the last year of his life, Cardinal Wyszyński said that “the world of labor in recent decades has experienced many disappointments and restrictions. Workers and the whole of society in Poland have endured the suffering of non-respect for basic human rights, the restriction of freedom of thought, of professing God, of educating the younger generation. All of this was repressed (…) When this oppression pushed everyone to the limit, the longing for freedom arose, Solidarność was born”; and this proved that for socio-economic reconstruction it is by no means necessary to break ties with God.” And subsequently, Fr. Jerzy uttered the final sentence that today can be considered his spiritual testament: “Let us pray that we may be free from fear, from intimidation, but above all from the desire for revenge and violence.”

After the prayers were over, following dinner at around 10:00 p.m., the priest and his driver set off on their return journey. Present at the Mass were also the perpetrators of the priest’s murder, belonging to the Polish Security Services: Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, and Waldemar Chmielewski. It was they who stopped his car, beat him severely, and, bound, put him in the trunk of their car. We do not know exactly what tortures Fr. Jerzy was subjected to, but it is known from the autopsies that he was thrown into the waters of the Vistula River already dead.

Today at the site of the kidnapping, in the forest near Górsk, a reinforced concrete monument has been erected: it is in the form of a leaning cross. Beneath the cross one reads: “Whoever wants to follow me, let him take up his cross.” Next to the cross stands a statue of Sorrowful Jesus Christ.

And right in Górsk, the Congregation of St. Michael the Archangel, with the support of the Marshal’s Office of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, organized the museum and Youth Education Center named after Father Jerzy Popiełuszko. It is the best way to remember the figure of the martyr and explain to younger generations what the communist regime was.

Fr. Popiełuszko’s “way of martyrdom” leads to the dam on the Vistula River in Włocławek, where divers recovered the body of the murdered priest. In the place where the final act of martyrdom occurred, a plaque and a cross have been placed. On the other hand, after the end of the communist regime in 1989, it was possible to erect a large cross made of steel and glass on the bank of the Vistula, the work of sculptor Jerzy Kalina. In this way, the artist wished to show water inside the cross: the two symbols of Fr. Jerzy’s martyrdom. Beside it was placed a boulder with the outline of the altar table and the Mass chalice. This unfinished altar sculpture was intended—according to the artist—to symbolize the sudden interruption of Fr. Jerzy’s pastoral ministry.

Today, on the anniversary of his kidnapping and martyrdom, it is worth re-reading Blessed Popiełuszko’s reflections on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, which remain relevant in a world where so many people are deprived of rights, human dignity, persecuted, and humiliated by various regimes, including “democratic regimes.”