The court in the southern city of Tarnow sentenced Jeż, head of the Tarnów diocese, to two years’ restriction of liberty, to be served through a 25% deduction from his salary, and fined him PLN 20,000 (EUR 4,560). The verdict is not final.
Court spokeswoman Małgorzata Stanisławczyk-Karpiel said no Church leader of his rank had ever faced a criminal charge in Poland.
“Both the whole trial and the verdict are unprecedented”, she told reporters.
Prosecutors had accused Jeż of failing to promptly alert law enforcement despite credible information that two priests had abused children under 15. Church authorities did report both men, but prosecutors said they waited too long, after running internal proceedings. They had sought a 10-month suspended prison term and a PLN 20,000 fine.
Jeż pleaded not guilty. He said the law was unclear and that the cases had specific complications, including that most of one priest’s offences took place in Ukraine, and that he did not know for a long time that some victims of the other were under 15.
His lawyer, Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski, argued that until a 2022 Supreme Court ruling it was disputed whether the duty to report covered offences committed before the law was changed in 2017. Both priests’ offences predate it. Failing to report such crimes is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Judge Małgorzata Adamczyk said the bishop was obliged to report under both the 2017 law and Polish bishops’ guidelines, and could not hide behind papal secrecy, since state law takes precedence. Weighing jurisdictional questions was not his job, she said.
“The court believes that the defendant’s task was only, and exactly, to file the relevant notifications”, she said.
The court noted that Jez had said handing over documents before Pope Francis made his decision would have cost him his post, and that his predecessor, Wiktor Skworc, testifying as a witness, gave a similar answer.
“It is evident that the defendant put his own particular interest above the good of the victims”, Adamczyk said. “The greater the power, the greater the knowledge and the ability to prevent further harm, the harder it is to morally justify inaction”.
Prosecutor Marcin Stępień said the conviction mattered more than the penalty. “There are no people who are equal and more equal before the law”, he said.
Defence lawyer Paulina Majtkowska said Jeż would appeal. “In the defence’s view there are no grounds for attributing criminal liability to the defendant”, she said.
The Tarnów diocese said it disagreed with the ruling and would also appeal, adding that it had formally reported both priests and that other people and state institutions knew of the cases.
Dozens of people were victims of the two priests. One case was dropped in 2022 because the statute of limitations had expired, and the other priest is on trial in the town of Nowy Sącz.
The case is the latest in a series of abuse scandals that have eroded trust in the Church in one of Europe’s most devoutly Catholic nations. In 2024, a bishop and an archbishop resigned over negligence in handling abuse cases. A 2025 IBRiS poll showed 35% of Poles trusted the Church, down from 58% in 2016.
(jh)
Source: PAP, Reuters