Brutal attack on a priest in Szczecin's basilica. The parish priest beaten with a rosary because he did not want to allow a sacrilegious mass to be held

Three men aged 30-40 years who had attacked the parish priest and church basilica of St. John the Baptist in Szczecin on Sunday were detained by the police. The attack took place in the sacristy of the church. One of the men hit a clergyman and a church worker. The perpetrators entered the sacristy in the middle of the day and started to argue - informed the spokesman of the Szczecin-Kamieński curia, Fr Slawomir Zyga.

According to the clergyman, the attack was probably religiously motivated. The perpetrators shouted „they want to marry”.

The ambulance service took the priest to the hospital. I have stitches on my face, five centimetres long

— Father Aleksander Ziejewski, the victim of the attack, said after the incident.

If he had reached me, he would have probably killed me. They were in some kind of devilish fury. They were blasphemous, I won’t repeat it. The church worker tried to cover me, they also hit him and he has stitches as well. They were pushing the sacristian lady

— the clergyman said.

One of the employees of the parish adds that the pastor’s attackers were beating his face with a rosary. He himself was punched twice with a fist so that he could not get up from the chair. Some commentators point to the link between the series of attacks on churches and priests and the aggressive anti-church campaign of the Left.

Tłum. K.J.