Wiesław Dawidowski

Wiesław Dawidowski (born 14 March 1964 in Gdynia) is a Polish Roman Catholic priest, Augustinian,[1] doctor of theology and journalist. Between 2007 and 2012 he was the anchorman of Religia.tv. He has also served as the Christian Co-Chair of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews,[2] and since 2012 the Provincial Superior of the Augustine Order in Poland.[3][4]

During the martial law in Poland (1981–1983), Dawidowski was sentenced to six months of incarceration for active involvement in underground anti-Communist youth resistance movement.[5] While in prison, he went on hunger strike with a group of political prisoners to protest against the debasing treatment of women inmates.

In 1987, Dawidowski joined the Augustinian Order, and was anointed priest on 14 June 1991. A graduate of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw and in Fundamental Theology at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Conferred doctorate in theology having defended his dissertation entitled On the theological method of Saint Augustine, the patron saint of his order.[6]

Dawidowski served as an assistant and later (2001–2004) the parish priest of the parish church of St Catherine of Alexandria in Kraków, and was he later established and supervisedf the Augustinian monastery in Łomianki, Poland's only centre of the Order outside Kraków. In 2004, he became the head of the Centre of Pastoral Care for the Foreigners of English Language of the Warsaw Archdiocese. In 2009, Dawidowski was nominated the Christian Co-Chair of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews.[7] In 2012, the General Chapter of the Polish Province of the Augustinian Order elected him the Provincial Superior of the Order in Poland.[8]

Dawidowski is the author of a blog on Religia.tv website, he is a columnist of Tygodnik Powszechny Catholic weekly, Więź monthly, and W drodze monthly. He has frequently been quoted in the English media about topics concerning the Catholic Church in Poland.[6][9]