1953 Show trial of the Kraków Curia

The 1953 trial of the Kraków Curia was a public show trial of four Roman Catholic priests and three lay persons of the city's Curia who were accused by the Communist authorities in the People's Republic of Poland of subversion and spying for the United States. The staged trial, based on the Soviet Moscow Trials, was held before the Military District Court of Kraków from 21–26 January 1953, at a public-event-hall of the Szadkowski Plant.

The court, headed by Judge Mieczysław Widaj, announced its verdict on 27 January 1953, sentencing to death Józef Lelito, Michał Kowalik, and Edward Chachlica. The priests were stripped of all civil and constitutional rights; the death penalties were never carried out. The remaining defendants were sentenced to sentences ranging from six years in prison to life (Franciszek Szymonek). The judgments were endorsed politically by a resolution of the Polish Writers Union in Kraków on 8 February 1953 that was signed by many prominent members. A series of similar trials followed.