Before his political career, Tomczak worked as a physician He graduated from the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice in 1987 and specialized in general medicine. He practiced as a family physician in Łęka Opatowska near Kalisz, where he was a local councilman from 1990 through 1998.[citation needed]
Tomczak made the headlines in Poland in 2000, when, together with fellow Polish Agreement member Halina Nowina-Konopka, he damaged a sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan on display in the National Gallery of Art Zachęta in Warsaw. Entitled La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), the sculpture is an effigy of Pope John Paul II in full ceremonial dress being crushed by a meteor.[1] Tomczak stated he damaged the sculpture "because this is what my voters expected me to do".[2] At the scene, Tomczak and Nowina-Konopczyna left an open letter addressed to the prime minister, the minister of justice and the minister of culture, in which he denounced the curator of the exhibition, Anda Rottenberg, as a "civil servant of Jewish origin" who was "ignorant of the Culture and Heritage of the Polish Nation" and "refused to realize her 'controversial' ideas in Israel".[3] The letter was signed by 91 Sejm members.[4] The public prosecutor requested Tomczak's parliamentary immunity be lifted, however, this was rejected by the Sejm's regulatory commission. Tomczak lost his parliamentary immunity in the European Parliament in 2008.
In 2016 he was sentenced for the above incitent for one year on probabion.[5] In 2017 he received presidential pardon.[6]
Homosexuality
In 2007, Tomczak caused controversy in the European Parliament with remarks on homosexuality. According to the BBC, he declared homosexuality "was against the law of nature, and called on 'so-called defenders of human rights' to tackle 'discrimination against normal families'". The report quotes Tomczak as saying that "[e]very person has a right to life and deserves respect and help, including one who – lost and scarred – has given into homosexual tendencies. The solution is to help those who suffer and to provide them with the cure that they expect us to deliver."[7]