The dead man is Father Stanisław Zbojniewicz, 67, a priest for 40 years who served at the abbey's center for Christian formation as an assistant and sacristan. Five people were stabbed in all: three priests and two laypeople, a man and a woman. One of the wounded priests had been hearing confessions and stepped in to stop the attacker. He remained in serious but stable condition days later. Another wounded priest was treated and released the same day.
Police arrested a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen, identified by prosecutors as Ihor M., at the scene. The knife came from the abbey kitchen, and the attack moved from there toward the church on the grounds. Prosecutors have charged him with murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. Psychiatric experts found he was suffering acute psychotic symptoms that keep him from taking part in court proceedings. On Sept. 26 a court ordered him held for three months in a secured hospital ward. Prosecutors have not established a motive or said how he came to be at the abbey.
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki called for a rapid and thorough investigation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the suspect would face the full severity of Polish law. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called for the man to be held fully responsible. The local archbishop asked the faithful to pray for the dead, for the wounded, and for the attacker's conversion, and to refuse hatred.
On Sept. 26, one of the wounded priests stood at the altar and said the first Mass in the abbey since the attack. Speaking for himself and the two other injured priests, he said, "we forgive." He asked the congregation to pray for the attacker, who, he said, needs that prayer most of all. He warned against blaming Ukrainians as a people, because one man had done this. The funeral for Father Zbojniewicz was set for Sept. 29 in his home village of Grzeska.
What a wounded man said from the altar
Read those facts slowly. A man went about his plain duties in a house of prayer and was cut down before the morning service. Another was hearing confessions, and he ran toward the knife instead of away from it. I do not know a braver thing than that.
The world has two answers ready for such a day. One is rage, and rage is understandable. Blood on a church floor ought to stir anger, and the law should do its work. The magistrate does not bear the sword in vain, and Scripture says so. A man who kills must answer for it, whatever the state of his mind, and justice here belongs to the courts and the doctors.
The other answer is a shrug, as if evil were only an accident of brain chemistry. Neither answer is the gospel. A priest with a fresh wound stood up and said "we forgive." Those two words are hard to say, and he did not say them because the crime was small. He said them because he had been forgiven something far larger himself.
That is the whole of the Christian faith in a sentence. Every one of us stands guilty before a holy God, and Christ went to a cross for sinners who had not asked for Him. Forgiveness did not cost Him nothing. It cost Him everything, and He paid it so that murderers and liars and proud men could be made clean.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
Mark the words "while we were yet sinners." He did not wait for the attacker to repent, or for you to clean up your life. He came while we were still enemies. A man who has grasped that cannot hold a grudge for long, because he knows what he was spared.
The Lord also told us how evil is to be met.
"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)
That is not weakness. The knife did its worst in that kitchen, and it did not silence the Mass. Within two days the doors were open and the Word was being spoken again. Evil had its hour, and it did not get the last word.
My friend, there is a man in a hospital ward in Poland who needs mercy more than he knows. There are families grieving a good man, and a village burying its priest. And there is you, wherever you sit reading this. The same Savior stands ready for every one of them. Do not put Him off. The morning may be quiet where you are, and nobody can promise that it will stay that way.