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| Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko, chaplain of the Solidarity democracy movement who was kidnapped, strangled and drowned, 19 October 1984 by a communist SB security police commando led by Grzegorz Piotrowski. Pope Benedict XVI on December 19, 2009 approved the beatification of Popieluszko[AFP] | ||
Up to 250,000 faithful are expected Sunday in Warsaw for the beatification of Jerzy Popieluszko, a Roman Catholic priest and opposition activist murdered 25 years ago by Poland's communist secret police.
Archbishop Angelo Amato, the Vatican's Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will represent Pope Benedict XVI at the beatification mass (0900 GMT) in central Warsaw which 100 bishops are also to attend.
The open-air ceremonies are to take place in Warsaw's sprawling Pilsudski Square, a highly symbolic venue where in 1979 the freshly-elected Polish-born Pope John Paul II celebrated an historic mass during his first pilgrimage to then communist Poland.
Popieluszko's relics are to be carried in procession through Warsaw and laid to rest at the "Temple of Divine Providence", an imposing church in the suburb of Wilanow, some 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) from Pilsudski Square.
As chaplain of the anti-communist Solidarity trade union, Popieluszko symbolised the peaceful struggle of the Solidarity opposition against Poland's communist-era totalitarian regime.
Celebrated after the December 1981 imposition of the martial law crackdown against the Solidarity opposition by Poland's then leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Popieluszko's "Masses for the Homeland" drew thousands, to the chagrin of communist authorities.
Preaching only peaceful resistance against the communist regime he urged faithful to "overcome evil with good".
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