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Andrzej Dziuba

Photo: Leszek Szymañski / dpa

Pope Francis has dismissed the Bishop of Lowicz, Andrzej Dziuba, for failing to investigate allegations of abuse in Poland's Catholic Church.

As the Vatican announced in Rome on Saturday, the pontiff had accepted an offer from the 74-year-old to resign.

In heavily Catholic Poland, this is the latest case of events in which high officials have been punished by the Vatican.

Regarding Dziuba, a statement from the papal nunciature in Poland said that "difficulties in the administration of the diocese and, in particular, negligence in the handling of cases of sexual abuse" of clergy against minors had been identified.

The Diocese of Lowicz, which is part of the Archdiocese of Lodz in inland Poland, announced on its website that Dziuba was retiring.

According to reports in the Polish media, Dziuba is said to have transferred a priest in his diocese from one parish to the next, even though he knew about the allegations of abuse through statements from the victims.

The priest has now been sentenced to three years in prison.

The Catholic Church in the homeland of Francis' predecessor John Paul II has been rocked by allegations of abuse for years.

The Polish pope, who died in 2005 and whose real name was Karol Wojtyla, appointed Dziuba a bishop himself two decades ago.

According to the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, there have been 13 cases in Poland in recent years in which bishops, bishops emeritus and an archbishop were punished by the Vatican because of allegations of cover-up.

With Dziuba there are now 14. The clergy often offered to resign before the results of the investigation were announced.

The Archbishop of Stettin-Kamien, Andrzej Dziega, was only removed from his position at the end of February.

In this case, too, the nunciature announced that the decision had been made in connection with an “investigation by the Vatican into negligence in solving pedophilia cases.”

In a case that made waves in the media, the Bishop of Sosnowiec, Grzegorz Kaszak, resigned last October.

It was previously known that a priest in Kaszak's diocese had held a sex party.

According to Polish media reports, in addition to several priests, there was also a prostitute there.

When he lost consciousness, some participants initially did not want to let the paramedics who were called into the house.

The rescuers only gained access with the help of the police.

Kaszak then turned to the faithful and asked them to pray for the “wounded and reviled priests” and to support them as best they could.

This letter was read in all parishes of the Diocese of Sosnowiec.

At the time of his resignation, Kaszak himself was not being investigated by the Vatican.

However, Polish church expert Tomasz Terlikowski told Gazeta Wyborcza that it can be assumed that the Vatican suggested this step to the bishop.

In many other countries, children and young people have also been sexually abused by Catholic clergy.

In many cases the church tried to hide this.

skr/dpa/Reuters