- This isn’t the kind of behavior you’d expect from clergy, yet here we are.
Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll! That’s what being a priest is all about.
Wait, what?
Well, at least that was the life a certain Polish Catholic priest led. We know about it because the last drug-fueled orgy he threw turned fatal.
A male prostitute attending the doomed party last fall overdosed on sexual performance-enhancing drugs. His lower body was also reportedly abused while he lay unconscious.
The priest and other guests tried to prevent first responders from entering the party venue. Fortunately, they eventually got in and the poor prostitute survived the ordeal.
Now, the priest in question has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for a slew of crimes, ranging from sexual offenses to drug violations. He must also pay thousands of dollars in damages and participate financially in establishing a fund to support victims of crime.
That last punishment is a bit ironic. At least he’s now doing his priestly duty of helping the less fortunate.
‘Purely Sexual’ Party
The Diocese of Sosnowiec, located in southwestern Poland some 160 miles from the capital Warsaw, has been embroiled in a scandal since last fall. That’s when details emerged of the less-than-holy behavior the local priests had been engaging in.
At the center of the events is one priest from the city of Dabrowa Gornicza, neighboring Sosnowiec. He has only been named in the media as Tomasz Z due to Poland’s privacy laws.
Considering the public profile of priests, we’re fairly certain everybody local still knows exactly who he is.
That said, Mr. Z may not be the only wild priest in the area. After all, a Reuters report stated that the scandal began when a party local priests threw took a turn for the worst.
According to Notes from Poland, the party took place in September 2023. The venue for the event was reportedly a church-owned building, later revealed to be Mr. Z’s apartment.
We don’t have exact details about what went down at the party. That’s all the same, though, because we probably wouldn’t be able to publish them anyway.
“The event was purely sexual in nature. Its participants took potency enhancement drugs,” an unnamed person with knowledge of the event stated to Polish media.
Gruesome Turn of Events
It was those potency enhancement drugs that turned what were supposed to be good times into bad times. A male prostitute who had been invited to the event (for reasons we can all probably guess) took too many of the little blue pills.
Having overdosed on the boner pills, the prostitute collapsed onto the floor and fell unconscious. His friend called the emergency number, so Mr. Z reportedly kicked him out.
Paramedics showed up but the rest of the partygoers prevented them from attending to the collapsed man by blocking the apartment’s door. The paramedics could only get in after they called the police.
By that point, the party had turned gruesome. According to local reports, the prostitute’s lower body had been “severely mutilated” as he lay on the floor.
Fortunately, there is a somewhat happy ending. The first responders got the prostitute to a hospital in time and he was able to check out, although with some fresh scars.
‘Serious Violation of Moral Norms’
Understandably, the local faithful were outraged by Mr. Z’s decidedly unchristian behavior. Church officials agreed and he was stripped of all his churchly duties shortly after the incident as he had “committed a very serious violation of moral norms.”
Yet, the local bishop obviously didn’t feel that was enough penance. In October 2023, bishop Grzegorz Kaszak resigned from his position due to the scandal.
Mr. Z was arrested in January and sentenced earlier this month. Polish courts sent him to jail for 18 months for “taking advantage of the helplessness of another person and causing them to have sexual intercourse or submit to a sexual act.”
In addition, he was sentenced for supplying and distributing illegal psychoactive substances and for intentionally failing to provide aid to a person whose life was in danger.
Mr. Z must also pay 15,000 zlotys (nearly $4,000) to the victim in damages. Finally, he must pay several thousand zlotys to establish a fund to aid crime victims.