A debate about whether a 'satanic' death-metal rock star should take part in a public TV talent show has opened divisions among the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. After Father Adam Boniecki, editor-in-chief of the relatively liberal Tygodnik Powszechny Catholic weekly defended the right of Nergal, guitarist and lead signer with the Behemoth death-metal band, to be a juror on TVPs top talent show, Voice of Poland, Conservative bishop Wieslaw Mering said the Catholic journalist “needed his eyes testing”.
Boniecki is “a wolf among sheep, not a shepherd,” Mering has said.
The row between the two men of the cloth broke out after Father Adam Boniecki defended the rock star - recently acquitted in court of “offending religious sentiment” after he ripped up a copy of the Bible on stage - in an interview with news channel TVN24.
Boniecki argued that in the TV show, Nergal – real name Adam Darski, who has a Masters degree in History - plays an entirely different role to that of his on-stage rock star persona, describing his behaviour on TVP as “delicate and cultured".
Boniecki added that “some kind of reaction” and debate about the bible-tearing antics among bishops such as Wieslaw Mering was positive, but it was unfair to put the entire matter “on Nergal's shoulders.”
He further lamented the politicising of the matter, with MPs from the socially conservative Law and Justice party rallying to condemn TVP in a recent parliamentary resolution.
However, bishop of Wlocawek, Wieslaw Mering, who has led the Church's campaign against Nergal and TVP, said that Father Boniecki needed to “have his eyes examined.”
In an open letter, Mering accused the 77-year-old editor of “spreading confusion among the faithful with his schizophrenic thesis,” characterising Boniecki as “a wolf among sheep, rather than a shepherd.”
Bishop Mering also took the opportunity to criticise the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly, describing it as a “niche, low input” publication that was designed to make “the thinking elite feel good about themselves.”