Janusz Szymik says he was abused by Jan W., then a parish priest in Międzybrodzie Bialskie, southern Poland, between 1984 and 1989, starting when he was 12.
The parish belonged to the Kraków archdiocese at the time.
His lawyer, Artur Nowak, told reporters the case involved hundreds of rapes against a child who was left with no one to turn to.
He argued the archdiocese should be held liable as the priest's superior, under a Polish civil law provision covering responsibility for harm caused by one's subordinates.
The case is being heard at the Regional Court in Kraków.
Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, the former Kraków archbishop who served as Pope John Paul II's longtime personal secretary, was summoned as a witness on Monday but did not attend.
The archdiocese said he was unwell, and the court has ordered him to submit a doctor's note or face a fine.
Szymik's lawyers say Dziwisz had been alerted to the case by a priest, Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, who had urged him to intervene.
Lawyers are also trying to secure testimony from Jan W. himself, who was dismissed from the priesthood.
His current whereabouts have not yet been established.
Speaking outside court, Szymik said the case had left him "inwardly ruined" but that he was fighting for justice.
He said the current Kraków archbishop, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, had personally apologised to him before the trial began – the first time, he said, that a Church hierarch had done so.
The archdiocese's lawyer declined to comment.
This is Szymik's second case linked to the abuse.
Last year, a court in Bielsko-Biała ordered the Diocese of Bielsko-Żywiec to pay him PLN 400,000 (EUR 93,600) over its failure to act after he reported the abuse in 1992.
The court found Szymik had been repeatedly abused as a child, but ruled that liability for the priest's conduct lay with the Krakow archdiocese, since the diocese of Bielsko-Żywiec was not created until 1992.
Both sides challenged the ruling, and the case is now before the Court of Appeal in Katowice.
The Church only acted against Jan W. in 2014, when a new bishop opened canonical proceedings.
The priest admitted to sexual contact with a minor, and was later suspended and punished.
(ał)
Source: PAP