Henryk Jankowski, Polish priest who supported Solidarity freedom movement, dies at 73
By APMonday, July 12, 2010
Poland’s Solidarity priest Jankowski dead at 73
WARSAW, Poland — Polish media are reporting the death of Henryk Jankowski, a Roman Catholic priest who gained prominence by supporting Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement in the 1980s but whose reputation was later marred by anti-Semitism and suspicions of pedophilia. He was 73.
The news agency PAP and the station TVN24 say Jankowski died Monday evening. They cited Pawel Adamowicz, the mayor of Gdansk.
Jankowski was the parish priest of St. Brygida Church in Gdansk, where Solidarity was born at the Baltic coast city’s shipyards.
The reports gave no cause of death but noted that Jankowski had battled diabetes for years.
Jankowski celebrated Masses for striking shipyard workers under Walesa’s leadership, resistance that paved the way for communism’s eventual demise.
