Roma national chaplain Stanisław Opocki dies after head-on truck collision in Poland
Stanisław Opocki, 73, died in hospital in Kraków after his car hit a truck head-on in Jurków on Wednesday, 7 October. The Conference of the Polish Episcopate announced his death on Thursday.
A head-on collision in Jurków
Stanisław Opocki, a 73-year-old priest and national chaplain for Roma, died after his car hit a truck head-on in Jurków in the Małopolska region on Wednesday, 7 October. The accident happened on voivodeship road 980 (Gazeta Krakowska calls it DW 980), just before its junction with national road 75 linking Brzesko and Nowy Sącz. Asp. Grzegorz Kupiec of the Brzesko county police told Rzeczpospolita that the Dacia driven by the priest collided head-on with the truck, and the reasons for the collision have not yet been established. Gazeta Krakowska, citing police findings, reported that the 73-year-old driver had moved into the opposite lane directly in front of the oncoming truck. The seriously injured driver was flown by a Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe helicopter to the University Hospital in Kraków, where he died several hours later.
Three decades of ministry to Roma communities
Opocki was born in 1953 and ordained a priest in 1978, and he belonged to the Tarnów diocese. In the early 1980s, while serving as a vicar in the All Saints parish in Łososina Górna near Limanowa, he first met Roma families living in very difficult conditions, including in the nearby settlement of Koszary. Articles say he came to regard this work as his mission. In the mid-1980s he launched a Roma pilgrimage from Łososina Górna to the Our Lady of Sorrows sanctuary in Limanowa. He prepared Roma for the sacraments and organized their pilgrimages, and as national chaplain he also took part in organizing Roma pilgrimages to Jasna Góra, Rywałd and the sanctuary of Blessed Karolina Kózkówna in Zabawa near Tarnów. In 1993 he co-organized the International Roma Congress in Zakopane, which addressed the situation of the Roma in the state and in the Church. Within the Roma community he was known as 'romano raszaj', meaning 'Roma priest'.
- Stanisław Opocki is born
- He is ordained a priest in the Tarnów diocese
- He co-organizes the International Roma Congress in Zakopane
- He becomes national chaplain for the Roma
- His car collides head-on with a truck in Jurków, and he dies in a Kraków hospital hours later
- The Conference of the Polish Episcopate announces his death
Tributes from Roma institutions
The Centrum Historii i Kultury Romów said it received his sudden death with enormous grief and recalled his service to the community over decades. The institution described him as the community's pastor, guardian, advocate and friend.
For decades of his priestly ministry he devoted himself without limits to the Roma community. He was not only its pastor, but also its guardian, advocate and friend. The good of the Roma community always lay close to his heart.
The Museum of Roma Culture in Warsaw, which announced the death on the Wednesday, called him a man of great merit and praised his pastoral and social work. Its published remembrance also recalled that he stayed loyal to the Roma during a period of strong hostility toward them.
We will not forget that when almost everyone turned against the Roma from Koszary, he was not afraid, he did not turn away, he was with them. He paid a high price for the hostility and lack of understanding, and he could not always count on people from his own Church. It is too early, it makes no sense, there is still so much to be done.
What remains open
Police have not yet established why the car and the truck collided, and the articles do not give a cause. Rzeczpospolita reported that the Episcopate confirmed the death on Thursday, 8 October, a day after the crash. The articles do not describe funeral arrangements or any statement from the truck driver.
