If there’s anything that manages to undermine faith in Christianity, it’s clergy who commit criminal abuses related to very unbiblical principles.
Even in this realm, however, where there are no shortage of contestants, former Father Tomasz Zmarzły is a uniquely vile entry into this cohort.
According to a Tuesday Reuters report, the Polish Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 18 months behind bars after a man at an orgy hosted by the clergyman at an apartment provided by the church overdosed on erectile dysfunction pills.
Reuters noted that the priest, who was sentenced on sex and drug charges, was being “referred to as Tomasz Z due to Polish privacy laws.” However, both the U.K. Metro and Daily Mail confirmed that Zmarzły was the guilty party.
A priest at the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Zmarzły reportedly held the party at a parish-owned apartment in August of 2023; at least one prostitute was in attendance, sources reported, along with other partygoers. The affair was referred to by the Daily Mail as a “gay orgy.”
It was reported that the victim collapsed due to an overdose of sexual potency tablets. However, when paramedics were called, Zmarzły refused to let them enter. Not only that, he allegedly threw a man who tried to call police out into the street.
First responders only gained entrance to the apartment after police were called.
🚨PRIEST CHARGED IN ORGY & DATE RAPE DRUG SCANDAL
Father Tomasz Zmarzły, a Polish priest, faces serious charges including sex and drug crimes after a scandalous party.
Police and paramedics were initially denied entry after being called to the scene where a man had reportedly… pic.twitter.com/g6ulubAfei
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 11, 2024
U.K. Metro, citing Polish sources, said that “the victim was severely mutilated in the lower parts of his body.” One, alas, does not need to conjure too much imagination to ascertain what this language is euphemizing.
Furthermore, sources said that the orgy wasn’t just the work of one parish priest, either.
“The event was organized by clergy and was purely sexual. Its participants took potency pills,” a source told a local Polish newspaper.
As Reuters noted, the sex scandal has sent shockwaves through the church in the country, one of the most Catholic in Europe.
“The Diocese of Sosnowiec in southwest Poland has been engulfed in scandal since reports of the sex party in the town of Dabrowa Gornicza emerged last year,” the wire service noted.
“The bishop of the diocese stepped down, the Vatican said at the time, without giving a reason for his resignation. Tomasz Z was discharged from the clergy last year after the media reports.”
In addition to sex and drug offenses, the Daily Mail reported the 46-year-old Zmarzły was sentenced for “failing to provide assistance to a person in danger of loss of life or serious bodily harm.”
In addition to the 18-month prison sentence, the former priest was required to pay the victim 15,000 zlotys, an amount roughly equivalent to $3,820.
The diocese didn’t immediately comment on the sentencing.
Was this a just punishment for Zmarzły?
Suffice it to say that men and women like Zmarzły make up a tiny fraction of the Catholic and Christian clergy — and yet, their actions can and are used to smear faith in general.
In some cases, this is justified; the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal didn’t just include serial abusers but higher-ups who were willing to conceal the crimes and shuffle guilty priests from parish to parish. In most cases, however, it is a case of all-too-sinful humans exhibiting disgraceful — and in this case, criminally disgraceful — behavior.
James 3:1 makes it clear that, while all sin can be forgiven by the blood and sacrifice of the Savior, sin by the clergy is of a far more heinous sort than by that of the ordinary laity: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”
Zmarzły’s actions should be judged with appropriate strictness — but it should also be noted that his transgressions have nothing to do with the truth of the Lord’s teachings, but with the clay feet of our sinful human nature. Demagogues oft try to confuse the two; it’s worth pointing out this hypocrisy when it arises, but it’s also worth imploring teachers to set an example and remain more upright than those they lead. If not, degeneracy of this sort will invariably rot the tree from the roots.
