Missing

A priest is abducted

Among the domestic opponents of Poland's Communist regime, few have been as vocal as the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko, 37, resident priest at St. Stanislaw Kostka Church in northern Warsaw. Long regarded as a disruptive element by the authorities, Popieluszko has endeared himself to millions of Poles for his vigor in denouncing the shortsightedness of the country's rulers and for supporting the banned Solidarity trade union. When the priest was abducted on a highway 125 miles northwest of Warsaw on Oct. 19, many of his countrymen came to suspect the worst. As days passed last week without word of Popieluszko's fate, Solidarity's temporary coordinating commission issued a statement, to which Lech Walesa added his name, charging that "the responsibility for the possible results of the present situation rests with the authorities."

The regime was quick to deny any involvement in the priest's disappearance and announced the arrest of three suspects in connection with the case. Addressing a plenary session of the Communist Party Central Committee last week, Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski condemned "this act of political banditry, which so shocked public opinion." The Central Committee ordered an investigation of the kidnaping and all other unexplained incidents of violence in the country.

The next day Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak confirmed in a nationwide television broadcast that all three of the arrested were veteran members of the Polish security forces. Kiszczak reported that Grzegorz Piotrowski, the ringleader of the plot, had admitted to killing the missing priest. Another suspect, however, claimed that Popieluszko had been left alive near the city of Torun. But the Minister held out little hope that he would be found unharmed. Said Kiszczak: One of the main hypotheses of the investigation rests on the premise that he is dead."

Popieluszko and his driver, Waldemar Chrostowski, were en route to Warsaw from Bydgoszcz, where Popieluszko had delivered a sermon. At about 10 p.m., they were stopped near Torun by three men in a light-colored Fiat. Chrostowski later told police that he was ordered into the Fiat, where he was gagged and handcuffed. Chrostowski said he then heard Popieluszko ask, "Gentlemen, what are you doing?" followed by what sounded like something being thrown into the car's trunk, presumably Popieluszko. After they sped off, Chrostowski jumped from the moving Fiat and escaped. At a press conference last week, Government Press Spokesman Jerzy Urban reported that the prime suspect, Piotrowski, had skipped work the day Popieluszko disappeared and had falsified the logbook in his official car, a Fiat. In addition, a hair identified as Popieluszko's was reportedly discovered in the trunk.

Solidarity sympathizers say that several people have been stopped and beaten this year in the Torun area, allegedly by members of the Anti-Solidarity Organization, a shadowy group that first surfaced last March and apparently advocates more forceful suppression of Solidarity by the government. General Jaruzelski is thought to have come under fire from hard-liners in the party and the security forces who feel he has been too lenient in his handling of the opposition. There was speculation last week that the Popieluszko abduction may have been planned to embarrass the Premier and weaken his hold on power.

At week's end the mood in Warsaw had grown tense as Poles waited for what they feared would be grim news. The official Polish press agency warned the opposition against "politically capitalizing" on the tragedy. To discourage street demonstrations, convoys of militia and water cannon were deployed throughout the city. But it was not a confrontation that either union activists or the church wanted. At a press conference at Popieluszko's parish, Solidarity Activist Seweryn Jaworski urged Poles not to go into the streets and to "concentrate on prayers in the churches." Said he: "Let's not give an opportunity to those people in the security forces for whom bloodshed means nothing." Popieluszko would not be present to celebrate Sunday Mass, but his parish planned to broadcast over loud speakers a tape recording of the rosary service that he conducted on the night he was kidnaped.