WARSAW - The Catholic Church in Poland has opened beatification proceedings for Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a leading pro Solidarity priest abducted, tortured and murdered by communist security police in 1984. The primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, presided over a Mass on Saturday at the north Warsaw church of St Stanislaw Kostka, which became a bastion of anti communist opposition when Father Popieluszko was one of its priests.
Earlier on Saturday a church tribunal, which will hear testimony on Father Popieluszko's life from some 60 witnesses, held its first sitting following more than a year of preparations. The start of the process, drawing attention to a notorious crime under the pre 1989 Communist system, falls months before Poland's ruling former Communists face a challenge in parliamentary elections from a right wing alliance grouped around the strongly pro Church Solidarity union.