This year we are commemorating a sad anniversary: the 40th anniversary of the abduction and martyrdom of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Among the initiatives to commemorate the martyr of communism is the unveiling of the statue of Blessed Jerzy in Debki.
In 1984, Fr Jerzy Popieluszko, chaplain of the Solidarity trade union, was already the focus of attention of the communist secret services. His Masses for the Fatherland, his help to the families of those interned by the regime and his charitable activity irritated the communists.
He was followed, provocations were organised to attack him, and a special group of the secret services was preparing an attack on him.
In those difficult times, Fr Popieluszko went to the beach to relax. He was staying at a campsite in a small village on the Baltic Sea, Dębki, north of Gdańsk. It was there that the officers caught up with him, but he managed to escape from the bungalow, escaping that pursuit.
There, in a wooden church designed by architect T. Torung and built in 1935, 40 years ago, on August 16, 1984, Father Popieluszko delivered one of his last homilies before his martyrdom. His manuscript is preserved, in which we read the words of the future martyr: “By forgiving, we give a chance to the one we forgive. We also give him the chance to embark on the path of love. (…) Christian forgiveness must be a generous forgiveness, that is, one that springs from love, from the goodness of the heart, not from contempt or fear. Only those who are free inside can truly forgive (…). Even when we are externally slaves to this or that limitation”.
The commemoration ceremony for Blessed Popiełuszko took place on 24 August 2024 in the Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Dębki. At 3 pm, a solemn Holy Mass was celebrated, at the end of which a memorial plaque and a monument to Blessed Jerzy were unveiled. The event, which took place under the honorary patronage of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Gdańsk, Monsignor Tadeusz Wojda SAC, was organised by the Gdańsk Institute of National Remembrance and the “Solidarność” trade union of the Gdańsk region.
