WARSAW, Poland — Hundreds of Poles joined marches Sunday in protection of the late pope, St. John Paul II, following a TV documentary that alleged he lined up youngster intercourse abuse involving clergy in his native Poland earlier than his election as pontiff.

The marches occurred in Warsaw and different cities on the 18th anniversary of John Paul’s dying. The biggest, held in Warsaw, was organized by an anti-abortion group beneath the slogan: “You woke up us, we’ll defend you.”

Members prayed earlier than marching behind relics of John Paul within the capital, led by a popemobile John Paul had used on his visits to Poland. Some marchers carried photographs of John Paul. For the reason that anniversary fell on Palm Sunday, additionally they carried pussy willows and different tree branches, which is a Roman Catholic custom on the Sunday earlier than Easter.

The investigative documentary was aired final month by TVN, an impartial broadcaster usually important of Poland’s conservative authorities. It coincided with the publication of a ebook referred to as “Maxima Culpa’ by a Dutch journalist, Ekke Overbeek, alleging that John Paul II helped cowl up circumstances of clerical abuse earlier than turning into pope.

Many Polish Catholics see each investigations as an assault on the legacy of a person revered in Poland as one of many biggest figures within the nation’s historical past and likewise honored as a saint by Catholics worldwide due to the Vatican’s fast-track canonization after his 2005 dying.

The problem has taken on political dimensions in Poland, significantly because the nation is because of have a parliamentary election within the fall.

The federal government has referred to as the documentary an assault on the nation’s identification and beliefs by the liberal political opposition. That could be a view that resonates in a rustic the place a big majority nonetheless think about John Paul an ethical authority, and the ruling Legislation and Justice celebration as gotten an obvious enhance as its leaders marketing campaign.

A number of high officers joined the marches, together with the protection minister and the top of the constitutional court docket, in line with business broadcaster Polsat Information.

Opinion surveys present the celebration is the most well-liked one within the nation, with its numbers as excessive as when Legislation and Justice first gained the ability to run the federal government eight years in the past.

In Warsaw, some marchers carried Polish nationwide flags and the flag of Solidarity, the commerce union and freedom motion whose creation was impressed by John Paul after he was elected pope in 1978 and which performed an important position in toppling communism throughout Jap Europe a decade later.

A pair who joined the march, Eleonora and Stanislaw Sochal, stated they have been livid at TVN for producing a documentary they regard as defamatory to the late pontiff.

They remembered communism as a darkish time when the nation was managed by the Soviet Union and described John Paul as the one that impressed the resistance that led finally to the nation regaining its sovereignty and freedom.

“TVN slanders our authorities. It slanders John Paul and it slanders all of our values,” Eleonora Sochal, 76, stated.

Amid the emotional debate about John Paul’s legacy, a statue of the late pontiff was vandalized in a single day within the central metropolis of Lodz. Somebody lined the monument in pink and yellow paint and the phrases “Maxima Culpa.”

Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau, who visited the sculpture on Sunday morning, referred to as the vandalism a “despicable act” and a well-organized component of hybrid warfare.

“It’s about dividing society alongside these most basic traces of our identification,” Rau stated.

He didn’t counsel who the perpetrator is likely to be, however when Polish authorities talk about hybrid warfare, they often are referring to alleged Russian efforts to sow discord and mistrust in Poland.

Polish authorities additionally marked the anniversary by providing passengers on some state railway rides free cream-filled pastries that are actually well-known as a result of John Paul beloved to eat them. The freebies impressed mockery and criticism on social media, with some saying the state shouldn’t be spending taxpayer cash handy out “papal” pastries.