Priest blames job pressure for suicides of peers
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
16.05.2012 14:42
A priest has blamed “pressure” and fear of being penalised by superiors after it was revealed that eight men of the cloth have committed suicide in one diocese since 2006.
Photo: east news
The series of suicides took place in the southern Tarnow diocese, with the most recent instance occurring in April.
“Priests here live under pressure that they must be perfect,” said Jesuit priest and psychotherapist Father Jacek Prusak, in an interview with the Rzeczpospolita daily.
“They cannot have a weakness, and if they do, they are not able to disclose it, because if they do, they fear that they will receive such a high penalty from the bishop that they will have to repent for the rest of their lives.”
Father Prusak noted that priests had been complaining about limited access to the bishop, and that “not everyone has the confidence that he will be like a father to them.”
Press spokesman for the Tarnow curia Father Jerzy Zon told the paper that only five cases should be considered as suicides, as the Church had only counted the instances where priests hanged themselves.
Two deaths involving overdoses of medical drugs, and one case of a priest who was found on the ground outside his window are not being acknowledged as suicides by the Church. (nh)