To Kill A Priest - The Murder of Father Popieluszko

98 Books about Poland | Polish War Graves in Britain

On the 19 October 1984 Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a Catholic Priest in Warsaw, was kidnapped and then murdered by the communist secret police. He was associated with the Solidarity movement and in his sermons was an outspoken critic of the communist regime in Poland.

Author Kevin Ruane in the book writes in chapter 22 The Funeral

Saturday 3 November 1984...laid to rest as a national hero and martyr by a grieving and defiant people...they filed past his coffin in their thousands through the night...At St Stanislaw's [Father Popieluszko's church], confessionals were setup in the churchyard and priests and penitents alike shivered in the cold...at least a quarter of a million people attended the funeral...some said a million.

Reviews

The Church Times (UK) 1 October 2004 wrote

It is a tragic tale: the short life of a priest, Fr Jerzy Popieluszko. Originally a student of no particular distinction, he became a political symbol and an activist almost despite himself. Then he fell victim to a brutal, though bungled, attack by the most reprehensible elements in the old Poland...Ruane exposes the former Polish regime as rotten, both on the surface and at its very core.