Father Jerzy Popieluszko, 1950-1984

His health was poor, he was thin as a rail, and his pulpit voice was nothing to brag about. But throughout his short years of ministry, he became the advocate and chaplain to workers in a Warsaw steel mill. Those were the days of "Solidarity" as the Poles struggled to support what was happening in the shipyards of Gdansk. Father Jerzy celebrated Mass, heard confessions, and counseled the steelworkers. When martial law invaded the Polish nation on the night of Dec. 12-13, 1981, the Polish nation was invaded by the Polish army.

In January of 1982, Father Jerzy began a monthly "Mass for the Fatherland" at St. Stanlaw Kostka church where he had been assigned as curate. It was at these Masses that this unassuming quiet curate found his voice and even found a new meaning to his priestly vocation. He was not a rabble-rouser, but through his quiet eloquence, tens of thousands began packing his monthly Mass for Poland. Through cold days and hot days, people came and were challenged by the priest.

What was his theme? "Vanquish evil with good"... words that he borrowed from Pope John Paul II. He made clear the moral duty of resistance, asking, "Whose side will you take? The side of good or the side of evil? Truth or falsehood? Love or hatred?" The people recognized their priest as one who could inspire others to the moral heroism he showed. Of Father Jerzy, it was written, "Nowhere else from East Berlin to Vladivostok could anyone stand before 10 or 15 thousand people and use a microphone to condemn the errors of state and party. Nowhere, in that vast stretch encompassing some 400 million people was anyone else telling a crowd that defiance of authority was an obligation of the heart, of religion, of manhood, and of nationhood."

The secret police of Poland heard his message and decided to kill Father Jerzy. He had previously been accused of crimes, harassed by police, and subjected to intimidation. As he was driving home from a pastoral assignment on Oct. 19, 1984, Father Jerzy was pulled over by three secret policemen. They trussed him up, beat him to death with their fists, their feet, and their bludgeons, and then threw his battered corpse weighted down with stones into the Vistula River.

The next day the state radio announced that Father Jerzy had disappeared and was presumed kidnapped by "unknown parties". But the people knew better; they knew it was the government’s work. People flocked to his church from all over the country. Masses were offered every hour around the clock for 10 days. On Oct. 30 came the news that Father’s body had been dredged out of the river. One of his priest friends, Father Antonin Lewek, urged the people to remember Jesus at the death of Lazarus ... to cry but not to strike out in violence. At Father Antonin’s Mass that day, he recalls that when the Lord’s Prayer was prayed, three times the crowd in tears repeated, "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

The cause of beatification of Father Jerzy is under way. In no way can Father Jerzy be called a revolutionary. But when the moment came, he knew how to speak truth to power, and how to do it in ways that summoned others to a similar truth-telling without violence, but without compromise either. "Violence is a sign of weakness," Father Jerzy said. Today Father Jerzy teaches the world that Faith has consequences, which each one is called upon to live out in one’s respective vocation.