‘We Are Witches’: Clerical Abuse Scandal Divides Parishes and Politics in Poland

‘We Are Witches’: Clerical Abuse Scandal Divides Parishes and Politics in Poland
People take part during a demonstration against pedophilia in Warsaw on Oct. 7, 2018. The banner reads 'Bishop, hiding pedophilia is a crime.' Agencja Gazeta/Jacek Marczewski via Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

KALINOWKA, Poland—The former Catholic priest of the Polish village of Kalinowka is serving three years in jail for molesting five schoolgirls. But Marta Zezula, a mother whose testimony helped convict him, says the priest’s victims are the ones made to feel guilty.

“We are witches ... because we have pointed at the priest,” Zezula fumed as she shoveled straw into a chaff cutter in her barn in the tiny settlement in eastern Poland.