In January 2024, a month after the swearing-in of Donald Tusk’s third government, the so-called “Sienkiewicz blacklist” leaked to the media. It was a list of Christian, conservative, and patriotic organizations, compiled by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. According to it, the ministries of Tusk’s government and the institutions subordinate to them were prohibited from cooperating with the listed entities. The list also included inquiries about whether individual ministries and government agencies provided funding to these organizations between 2015 and 2023.
Among those on the list was the association Fidei Defensor, which, until all funding was suspended at the beginning of 2024, carried out projects funded by the Justice Fund. They focused on the defense of Christians in Poland and, among other things, on training intended to help protect ordinary citizens—especially the elderly—from scammers.
After funding was suspended (without formally terminating the signed contracts) and after the disclosure of the “Sienkiewicz blacklist,” intensive inspections of these organizations began. In the case of Fidei Defensor, there were as many as eleven inspections conducted simultaneously by various institutions—including the Supreme Audit Office, the National Revenue Administration, and even the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. The inspections covered several years of operations and continue to this day. As the president of the association, Adam Surmacz, says, it looks “as if the point were not to carry out an inspection, but to exercise control”—which he discusses in a conversation with the Ordo Iuris Institute’s communications director, Olivier Bault.
However, the worst was yet to come. In October 2024, at 6 a.m., ABW agents showed up at Adam’s home in Szczecin to transport him to Warsaw and detain him in a cell that had been vacated a couple of weeks earlier by Fr. Michał Olszewski.
Adam Surmacz—henceforth referred to in the media as “Adam S.”—spent three months in solitary confinement and, as he himself claims, was subjected to the same forms of treatment that international law recognizes as torture—similar to what had previously been done to Fr. Olszewski and two female officials arrested at the same time.
Although inspections are still ongoing, and the National Prosecutor’s Office, illegally staffed by Donald Tusk’s government, is still trying to gather any evidence against Adam Surmacz, he himself has not given up his efforts to defend Christians. Fidei Defensor continues its mission as part of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture’s program for the defense of Christians, funded exclusively by private donations from Polish families and small business owners.
All of this is discussed in this 50-minute conversation.
See also:
- Fr. Olszewski’s detention is a politically motivated case and sets a new precedent in post-communist Poland, his defense attorney says in an interview with Ordo Iuris (video)
Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
