The investigative report “Franciszkańska 3” by Marcin Gutowski on TVN about the attitude of Pope John Paul II towards pedophilia in the Catholic Church sparked a national discussion that led to specific behavior in the political and social sphere. The aim of this article is to analyze the phases of the discourse of investigative journalism (the reportage “Franciszkańska 3”), from the publication phase through the mobilization of public opinion, to political and social initiatives in the form of the so-called papal marches. The marches became — according to the typology created by Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz — a media event in the version of a “coronation”.
In the described case, one of the variants of the abbreviated muckraking model by Molotch, Protess and Gordon was updated in a previously unknown subvariant characterized by a public reaction opposite to that expected by journalists initiating investigative activities. They were largely rejected by the defenders of John Paul II, becoming the axis of the worldview conflict, and causing outrage of a large part of the public opinion and creating a media event in the form of papal marches.
