By MICHAEL J. MILLER
(Editor’s Note: Michael J. Miller translated Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko: Truth Versus Totalitarianism for Ignatius Press.)
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It is difficult to write a good literary life of a saint. A dry recital of the facts captures neither character nor motives and makes as much of an impression as a plaster statue on a pedestal. Sanctity is a love story, but the Protagonist is invisible, known only indirectly through the effects of grace on a frail human being.
Cinematic lives of saints are vivid but usually do not avoid the pitfalls of sentimentality and empty pageantry. Most biopics of holy men view them through the lens of contemporary preoccupations and quickly become dated. Even an outstanding script may be spoiled by an actor whose tone of voice cannot express both conviction and humility.
It is a rare privilege, then, to find a good book and a first-rate film about the same saint — in this case the “Solidarity priest” who was brutally murdered in 1984 by agents of the Polish Communist regime. The book is Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko: Truth Versus Totalitarianism (Ignatius Press, 2018; Ignatius.com), by Bernard Brien, a priest of the Diocese of Créteil, France. The film is Popieluszko: Freedom Is Within Us (2009), directed by Rafal Wieczynski, who also wrote the screenplay. Both follow closely the same basic outline in telling the story of Jerzy’s life.
Biography Of A Blessed
Jerzy (George) Popieluszko was born on September 14, 1947, to a devoutly Catholic farming family in postwar Poland, behind the Iron Curtain. As a young man he went to the seminary but was soon drafted into the army, where every effort was made to undermine his faith.
He survived the ordeal with his vocation intact and, despite poor grades on his academic work, was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Warsaw in 1972. He was assigned to St. Stanislaus Church in the capital, which had both factory workers and intellectuals among its parishioners.
In 1980 the trade union movement “Solidarity,” demanding basic human rights as well as better working conditions, led to strikes in several major cities. Fr. Popieluszko was sent to celebrate a Mass at the large steel plant in Warsaw, which was occupied by the laborers. The young, soft-spoken priest understood blue-collar workers well and began a remarkable ministry as the chaplain of the local branch of Solidarnosc.
Like Pope John Paul II, he preached truth, human dignity, nonviolence, forgiveness, and devotion to Mary, the Mother of Christ. Some of his homilies were broadcast on Catholic radio; others were written down and circulated in print. Invitations to preach poured in from other Polish cities, and Fr. Popieluszko became a national celebrity.
Government forces tried to hem him in and wear him down with constant surveillance, interrogations, and psychological warfare. Burly steelworkers guarded the doors of his residence, but his friends still worried about his security and asked his bishop to send him to Rome to study. The priest refused the offer, convinced that he had to stay with his people.
On October 19, 1984, while traveling to a parish northwest of Warsaw, he was abducted by state officials, cruelly tortured for two hours, then thrown into the Vistula River. Fr. Jerzy’s disappearance sparked a nationwide prayer vigil that forced the government to investigate, recover the body, and try the murderers.
Enormous crowds peacefully lined the streets of Warsaw for Fr. Jerzy’s funeral procession.
The Book
The biography by Fr. Bernard Brien is quite short, only 125 pages, but it includes quotations from Blessed Jerzy’s diaries, homilies, and rosary meditations that give the reader a sense of his personality and preaching style. These passages, incidentally, confirm the authenticity of the portrayal in the film, which at least once uses Fr. Popieluszko’s actual words when he speaks from the pulpit.
The French perspective on what is in every respect a Polish story filters out complicated historical elements of it that might not be immediately comprehensible to a non-Pole. The fundamental clash between traditional European Catholicism and twentieth-century atheistic totalitarianism is described simply and without polemics.
A “bonus feature” of the book is the frame story about the author himself: a successful businessman who after a midlife spiritual crisis discerned a call to the priesthood.
Along the way he discovered that he was born on the same day as Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko and shares with him a charism for ministering to the sick. Fr. Brien commended a dying man to the prayers of Fr. Popieluszko; the man recovered instantaneously and completely. Rome investigated this cure, declared it miraculous, and proceeded to beatify Fr. Jerzy in 2010.
The Video
About two years ago I bought a DVD of Popieluszko: Freedom Is Within Us with English subtitles, but unfortunately it is no longer available for purchase in the United States. It can be viewed, however, by subscribers to FORMED, an online resource with a large catalogue of good Catholic books and videos (www.formed.org).
There is a remarkable resemblance between Adam Woronowicz, who plays the title role, and Blessed Jerzy. The actor probably lost weight for the part; a seminary classmate who sees Fr. Jerzy again on his travels greets him amicably as “Twig!”
It is a thoughtful, many-sided performance, but the actor’s generally meek demeanor sometimes seems boyish. The screenplay glosses over the fact that Jerzy had suffered from poor health since childhood.
After a chilling opening sequence in which Communist violence casts a pall over the household of young Jerzy, the film seems to move slowly, belaboring the implacably anti-Christian views of his superiors in the army. Actually thematic groundwork is being laid carefully: not just the conflict of worldviews in that military microcosm, but also Jerzy’s response of faith, prayer, and witness. This story repeats itself in ever-widening circles.
There is no hype in the depiction of Warsaw under Communist rule — the siege of the steelworks, the show trials, the surveillance of “subversive” citizens and the files kept on them; the facts speak dramatically for themselves.
The film accurately reflects the same world that emerges from the second volume of George Weigel’s biography of John Paul II, written after the secret archives of the Communist regime in Poland were opened. Documentary footage of the pastoral visits of the Polish Pope to his homeland anchor the events in our memory and in Church history.
Similarly, Catholic life is treated realistically, grit and all. There are several moving scenes depicting conversions and the administration of sacraments under martial law. No “bad priests” pharisaically criticize Fr. Jerzy’s preaching about social justice, but there are nuanced onscreen dialogues of clergymen about what must and can be said in those volatile circumstances.
Cinematic techniques create powerful tableaux: In one remarkable tracking shot, Fr. Jerzy leaves the courtroom where he has just attended the trial of a Solidarity leader and has a series of fruitful pastoral contacts with the people he meets in the halls of the municipal building. Huge crowds of extras reenact protests in the streets and standing-room-only liturgies in the churches.
After Fr. Jerzy’s abduction, his elderly pastor, just back from the hospital, falls to his knees at the shrine that has been set up for the Solidarity priest at St. Stanislaus Parish.
The film finds glints of humor in scenes where Fr. Jerzy dons a disguise, or the archdiocesan bureaucracy gives the government a run for its money. The terrible indignities that Jerzy suffered at the hands of Communist officials are tastefully suggested rather than shown.
When the closing credits start to roll, the viewer realizes what a monumental work of art this two-and-a-half-hour film is. Honorary producers include the surviving members of Fr. Popieluszko’s family and several Polish prelates. This dramatization of the life of a blessed is also a tribute to the indomitable Catholic spirit of the Polish people under an atheistic regime.
The reasons to read the book and/or watch the film about Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko boil down to two: He is an eloquent preacher of Catholic social doctrine and a powerful intercessor in Heaven; his story, which is within living memory, is an important part of the history of our Church.
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