Polish priest: Young priests plagiarize homilies from Internet

Published: 2008-02-25

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A prominent Polish priest said young priests are using the Internet to plagiarize homilies for Masses. "If a priest takes another person's text and presents it as his own from the pulpit, without pointing out where he got it from, this is unethical and against the law protecting authorship," said Father Wieslaw Przyczyna, co-author of the book "To Pinch or Not to Pinch." "Unfortunately, the practice has become common here," he said. Father Przyczyna, chairman of the Polish Homiletics Group, told Catholic News Service Feb. 25 that he had been accused of "harassing priests and exposing their weaknesses" by drawing attention to the plagiarism problem. However, he added that more and more Polish Catholics were complaining about priests who read their Sunday homilies, while some Poles had traced the texts on the Internet and even come to Mass with their own copies.

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