This was especially true in Italy. The country’s prime minister and the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party, Bettino Craxi, gave a special statement in which he said:
“For us, Italians, the assassination of young father Popiełuszko brings to mind the sacrifice of [Giacomo] Matteotti, a free man who raised his voice in parliament in defence of the rule of law and freedom at a time when fascism, having just taken power, was disarming Italy with its arrogance and crimes.”
He also expressed a wish:
“For this horrific incident to have its end in making the whole world aware that such crimes do not pay, and that one cannot stop the course of history which moves towards freedom, self-determination of the nation and the confirmation of human rights, dignity and mankind’s responsibility.”
Moreover, he kept coming back to the murder of the Polish priest multiple times. On November 3, he did the following:
“Called on the Polish People’s Republic authorities to bring justice and punishment to those responsible for the death of father Jerzy Popiełuszko.”
Bettino Craxi (1934-2000) in a photograph from the 1980s, photo: public domain
Giacomo Matteotti (1885-1924), photo: public domain
No one can be indifferent
On a side note, Italian socialists did not limit themselves to just statements. At the end of October 1984, they hung posters on the streets of Rome expressing solidarity with Poles and their outrage…
“With the killing of a priest devoted to God, the freedom of consciences and human rights.”
One of the posters signed by the party said:
“Yesterday the fascists murdered G[iacomo] Matteotti, while today the communist dictatorship in Poland treacherously murdered father Jerzy Popiełuszko.”
The Italian senate, on the other hand, on October 30 adjourned its session for 10 minutes to honour the murdered priest, while its speaker Franscesco Cossiga appealed, in the name of the Italian nation, to the Polish communist authorities to…
“Not seek revenge, in the interest of Poland and all of humanity, but justice.”
Italian president, Alessandor Pertini, declared that “the Italian nation joins in the grief of the Polish nation”, and also similarly to the Italian prime minister, expressed hope that “the perpetrators of Jerzy Popiełuszko’s murder will be found and punished.” He also called pope John Paul II and expressed “condolences and solidarity of the Italian nation with the Vatican and the Polish nation.” What’s more, he sent a telegram to the president of the communist State Council, Henryk Jabłoński. In said telegram, he stated that the murder of the Polish priest “outraged him and the entire Italian nation”, and added that…
“It’s a grave violation of civil and human rights, which the murdered priest bravely fought for.”
Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the Italian Christian Democrats, Flaminio Piccoli, said that this murder was “a gift to the regimes in which political and civil freedoms are barely existent.” A member of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, Luigi Preti, determined that…
“This tragic incident shows that totalitarian regimes’ logic, even if their leaders are not aware of some events, can lead to some of the worst crimes imaginable against individuals.”
The secretary of the Italian Liberal Party, Giovanni Spadolini, on the other hand, said that his party “was shocked by the barbaric act of violence committed against father Jerzy Popiełuszko, a voice of conscience, an outspoken supporter of democratic and social opposition against the military regime in Poland.” He also said that…
“No one can be indifferent to such a cruel act of intolerance.”
Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko (1947-1984), photo: public domain
Funeral of Father Jerzy, November 3, 1984, in the courtyard of the church of St. Stanisław Kostka in Warsaw, a crowd of people with their arms raised in a gesture of victory, photo from the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance
Communists against the Polish People’s Republic
The Italian communists also spoke up. Even before the Polish communist authorities announced the discovery of father Jerzy Popiełuszko’s body, the secretary general of the Italian Communist Party, Alessandro Natta, officially condemned “the crime of the priest’s abduction”, and also called on Wojciech Jaruzelski’s government to “fully investigate the circumstances and motives of this crime.”
After the priest’s murder was confirmed, Natta, in the name of his party, stated that:
“Members of the communist party share the pain of the priest’s close ones, the Catholic Church and the Polish society.”
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These Italian reactions, especially the socialists, must have been a tough pill to swallow for the regime in Poland. The comparison of the Polish communists to Italian fascists must have been a slap in the face of Jaruzelski and his colleagues. A well deserved slap at that…
