WHILE HIS wife, Danuta, receives the Nobel Peace Prize on his behalf in Oslo tomorrow, Mr Lech Walesa will be at a special Mass said by his parish priest in Gdansk.
Fr Henryk Jankowski will be saying a Mass for all Nobel Peace Prize winners. Fr Jankowski Is One of two priests against whom the government has already taken official investigative action. The other is Fr Jerzy Popieluszko, of Warsaw.
Both priests have been active In praising the Christian values embraced by Solidarity, and both acted as chaplains to workers involved in the strikes that brought Solidarity into being.
This week for the first time Church officials In Poland have confirmed that the deputy religious affairs minister, Adam Lopatka, wrote to Cardinal Glemp last month naming 69 priests whom he wanted the Church to silence if the government were not to be forced into acting against them. Last week both Church and State were denying the list.
Fr Jankowski and Fr Popieluszk are both on the list. Police are reported to have attempted to arrest Fr Popielusrko at his Warsaw parish on Friday. But parishioners refused to let the police through.
Fr Popieluszko is constantly protected by volunteers among his parishioners. On Sunday he preached a sermon for the feast of St Barbara, the patron of miners, at the same time as a group of activists were arrested in Silesia attempting to put up a plague to seven miners killed after the imposition of martial law.
Tuesday is the second anniversary of the imposition of martial law. Fr Popieluszko is due to celebrate another of his monthly Masses for the Nation, the sermons at which have drawn down the criticism of the authorities. They accuse him of "abusing religious freedom" and "anti-state activities".