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PNCC mourns Poland’s loss

From WNEP-TV: Local Polish Community Mourns Crash Victims

At Sunday masses, members of the Polish National Catholic Church in Scranton took time to remember the victims of the plane crash in Russia and to offer prayers for the people of Poland.

“Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing on the people of Poland as they have lost their president, members of their government, we ask that You be with them and strengthen them,” said Right Reverand Anthony Mikovsky, bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church.

At Sunday masses at Saint Stanislaus Cathedral on East Locust Street in Scranton, members of the Polish National Catholic Church offered prayers for the nearly 100 people who lost their lives in Saturday’s plane crash.

Many parishoners share a heritage with the people of Poland and shared in their grief.

“Devastated. We were very devastated,” said Irene Jugan, president of the Polish National Union of America. “We’re mourning for Poland, we really are. That’s our homeland.”

Ninety-six people were killed when the plane carrying the president of Poland, his wife and many high ranking government officials went down Saturday in Russia.

They were on their way to visit the site where thousands of Polish soldiers were executed during World War II.

“It’s definitely a devastating tragedy. So many all on one plane. They were going to visit this site, again a site of tragedy back years ago,” said parishoner John Ostrowski, Jr. of Roaring Brook Township.

Many members of the church feel a connection to Poland and hope its people will be able to overcome the tragedy.

“We pray for those who have passed and we pray for those who have been affected by this and also for the people of Poland as they elect new leaders and move on in their journey,” added Mikovsky.

The president of the Polish National Union of America officially offered condolences to the people of Poland and offered support in whatever way it is needed.

Christian Witness, Current Events, PNCC,

St. Barbara intercede for them

From Interfaith Worker Justice:

Mother Jones is often quoted as saying, “Pray for the Dead, Fight like hell for the Living.” The 25 miners who lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch mining disaster call us to both prayer and activism.

We must pray for the miners still missing, the miners who have lost their colleagues and the families of those killed. Let us pray for them individually and through our congregations. April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a time to remember those who have lost their lives in the workplace. Consider using IWJ’s Litany for Workers Memorial Day in one of your congregation’s services later this month.

We must also fight to protect those who work in dangerous workplaces like mines. The Upper Big Branch mine is operated by the Performance Coal Company, a non-union company operated by Massey Energy. In the last 22 years, the company has committed over 1,000 health and safety violations. Since the beginning of March 2010, the company has had 12 serious ventilation violations, including 8 for failing to follow the ventilation plan. This company had a pattern of violating health and safety guidelines. Such patterns of violations kill and maim workers.

Thank you for your prayers and your action.

The PNCC was founded among the coal miners of Scranton, PA and the surrounding area. The PNCC worked to educate and organize miners and other workers, alongside and in conjunction with the efforts of the Polish National Alliance.

The immigrant miners of 1897 faced many of the same dangers existent today. In my profession it is well established that evident patterns of bad behavior in business (tax evasion, safety and health violations, wage theft) are indicators of deeper problems that permeate the entire business. It is time to take off the rose colored glasses and see the bad guys for who they are, and to level the playing field for those who work ethically and within the law.

St. Barbara, intercede for the missing.
Blessed Mother, pray for the deceased.
Lord Jesus, by your cross and resurrection, have mercy on them all.

Christian Witness, PNCC, ,

Christ is Risen! Chrystus zmartwychwstał!

Chrystus zmartwychwstał! Prawdziwie zmartwychwstał! Alleluja!
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen! Alleluia!

In Poland, the duty of standing guard at the symbolic tomb typically falls on the local fire brigade. The members stand watch at the tomb arrayed in their dress uniforms and in the role of the Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:62-66) whom Pilate sent to guard the tomb. At the Resurrection Procession, when the Eucharist is raised up from the symbolic tomb and Wesoły nam (This joyous day) is intoned, the “soldiers” fall to the ground (Matthew 28:2-4).

[audio:https://www.konicki.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/WESOLY-NAM-DZIEN.mp3]
PNCC,

From the Liturgy for Palm Sunday

P. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, —What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.

Choir: But one of them, Caiaphas who was high priest that year, said to them, —You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish—. So from that day on they took counsel how to put Him to death, for as they said: —The Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation—.

P. With hyssop sprinkle me, o Lord, and I shall be cleansed. Wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow.
May my prayer before You be counted as incense and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.

Choir: Children of the Hebrews, bearing branches of olive went out to meet the Lord, crying: Hosanna in the highest! Children of the Hebrews spread their garments on the road and cried out saying: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

P. And when they drew near to Jerusalem, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them: —Go into the village opposite you, where you will find an ass tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, —The Lord has need of them!— The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the ass and the colt and put their garments on them and He sat thereon. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road and the crowds who went before Him and that followed shouted,

Choir: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! O King of Israel: Hosanna in the highest!

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , ,

A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor

You can now pre-order Interfaith Worker Justice’s new book: A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor.

Next month Orbis Books is publishing A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor, an exciting anthology compiled by IWJ that will be a vital resource for seminaries, congregational study groups, social justice committees, labor unions, and beyond.

The book is organized into five parts:

  1. Crisis for U.S. Workers
  2. Religion-Labor History
  3. What Our Religious Traditions Say about Work
  4. Theology and the Ethics of Work
  5. The Religion-Labor Movement Today

I will be picking up a copy. I wonder if the role of the PNCC in Labor history will be included, as well as the role played by organizations like the Polish National Alliance (An interesting history, the PNA is generally non-sectarian and was a close ally of the PNCCMany PNCC Parishes had PNA Lodges, some more than one Lodge. The PNA and PNCC were united in their goals of organizing Poles in the United States for their own betterment, service to their homeland, and at the time independence for Poland. The PNA’s non-sectarian character (membership included Roman Catholics, PNC Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Poles of no denominational affiliation) led to accusations that it was communist, anti-clerical, engaged in organizing secret societies, and all sorts of other evils — generally from a cadre of Polish R.C. priests, most especially Rev. Wincenty Barzynski, a Resurrectionist priest in Chicago and co-founder of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. There were movements throughout the Alliance’s history to bar non-Roman Catholics from membership. They generally failed. As time has progressed, the Alliance while remaining non-sectarian, has assumed a more Roman Catholic identity. See Polish-American politics in Chicago, 1888-1940 By Edward R. Kantowicz, especially Chapter 3, ppg 28-37. in supporting Labor).

You can pre-order a copy online or by phone (call 800-258-5838 and use code WJR for FREE shipping) or through your local bookstore.

For suggestions on incorporating the Reader into your curriculum, contact Rev. April McGlothin-Eller, IWJ’s Student Programs Coordinator, at (773) 728-8400, ext. 21, or by E-mail.

Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

What’s wrong with this article?

PolishNews recently reprinted an article by Daniel Pogorzelski originally published in the July 2009 edition of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society’s Newsletter (see page 14). The article is quite interesting, and covers the history of Avondale and Chicago’s Polish Village.

Nestled between the stately Greystones of Logan Square and the weathered Victorians of Old Irving, Chicago’s Avondale community area, is filled with some of the Northwest Side’s most unique architecture with its characteristic mix of steeples, smokestacks and two-flats.

While today Avondale is chiefly associated with the famous “Polish Village” along Milwaukee Avenue centered around St. Hyacinth Basilica and St. Wenceslaus Church in the district’s western half, diverse ethnicities have contributed over time to the area’s rich narrative.

Avondale’s history begins as part of the quiet prairie area surrounding Chicago in what would be incorporated as Jefferson Township in 1850. Two of the old Native American trails through the area were planked, becoming the Upper and Lower Northwest Plank Roads, routes traversed largely by truck farmers en route to sell their goods at the Randolph Street Market. Known to us today as Milwaukee and Elston Avenues, these two diagonal thoroughfares break up the monotony of the city’s ever-present grid…

Well enough. Wondering what is wrong with the article? Here it is:

By 1894 St. Hyacinth’s Roman Catholic Parish was founded for Poles in an attempt to pre-empt the establishment of a schismatic parish by the Polish National Catholic Church.

While such a statement would be perfectly acceptable in a Roman Catholic publication, because it does represent the Roman Catholic point-of-view, it does not belong in a historical study or essay. What should a reader infer, especially in this day and age when fewer and fewer even understand the meaning of “schismatic?” This is, after all, supposed to be a history, not a discussion of Church politics, polity, or theology. Further, the article discusses other Parishes established in the area, including the Allen Church (an African-American congregation and the oldest church in the area) as well as German and Swedish Lutheran congregations. The article is conspicuous in not taking those congregations to task for the Reformation…

The article might have discussed the Kozlowski movement in Chicago, the fact that the Roman Catholic Church reacted to the PNCC by appointing the first native Pole as a Suffragen Bishop in Chicago in 1908, that in response to Bishop Hodur’s consecration in 1907, or any amount of historical data that might help a reader to understand the religious and political environment in the neighborhood.

From looking at the Historical Society’s mission statement, no where can I discern that this is a sectarian organization. As such, its newsletter and publications, if they are to reflect history, should be edited more carefully. In the alternative, articles should be labeled as personal opinion, or as biased sectarian histories.

The PNCC has had its role in the history of this neighborhood, and a proper historical exposition on the neighborhood should reflect balance while avoiding sectarian pejoratives.

PNCC,

Welcome home Fr. Walczak

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: [Rev] Melvin Walczak rejoins St. Casimir

IRONDEQUOIT —” A priest who made headlines as the first married priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester has returned to the church of his first ministry, St. Casimir Polish National Catholic Church on Simpson Road.

Along the way, the Rev. Melvin Walczak, 62, has had quite a journey.

St. Casimir is part of the Polish National Catholic Church, which formed in 1897 by Polish nationalists who broke away from Roman Catholicism. The church, which according to its Web site has more than 25,000 members nationally, allows married priests.

The Roman Catholic Church typically does not, but policy does permit married priests ordained in another church to become Roman Catholics and continue to serve as priests.

Walczak served as pastor of St. Casimir from 1973 until 1985, when he switched denominations. He served at four Roman Catholic diocesan churches as well as at Rochester General Hospital, where he was director of pastoral care.

But after experiencing a —crisis of ministry,— Walczak left the diocese in 1996 and worked for the administrations of Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks and, before that, former county executive Jack Doyle.

Walczak retired last year and thought about moving to the South to be near his brother. But when he learned of financial problems at St. Casimir, Walczak contacted the church’s bishop, who reappointed him.

And last Sunday, for the first time in a quarter-century, Walczak celebrated Mass at St. Casimir.

A homecoming

—I was frightened by how comfortable it felt, but frightened by how nervous I felt,— Walczak said. —As it unfolded, God provided the grace to make it easier for me. The anxiousness comes from not surrendering to God, and the peace comes from saying, ‘It’s in your hands now.’— Parishioners at St. Casimir said they were thrilled with Walczak’s return.

—We consider Father Mel a friend as well as pastor,— said Gary Richardson of Penfield, who got married at St. Casimir in 1963, when the church was still on Ernst Street in Rochester. —He’s a take-charge guy, and that’s a good thing. We’re all delighted with Father Mel coming back. If anyone can save the church, it’s Father Mel.—

Maria Weldy of Irondequoit, who joined St. Casimir after Walczak left, has been fighting to keep the church open. Membership now is about 20 families, compared with about 200 families when Walczak first served there.

—When someone comes over and offers his experience, it’s incredible,— Weldy said. —We’re very grateful, and it’s very surprising.—

…

Walczak … retired in 2009 and planned to spend a year in retirement before making any —dramatic changes.—

Then he read about St. Casimir’s problems.

—I have a friend who said, ‘Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,’ and I have leaned on that,— Walczak said. —I hope to appeal to folks who have not been going to church, and to people who are going but are disillusioned.

—I’m still not sure why I’m here. I’m not sure that I understand God’s plan. But there are a lot of God’s plans that I don’t understand.—

Welcome home Fr. Walczak. May God grant you great joy and perseverance in your ministry in the Polish National Catholic Church.

Homilies, PNCC

Solemnity of the Institution of the Polish National Catholic Church

First reading: Wisdom 5:1-5
Gradual: Psalm 30:2-4
Epistle: 1 Timothy 4:1-5
Gospel: John 15:1-7

Everything God created is good

Lord for us your wounds were suffered. O Christ Jesus, have mercy on us.

Life skills:

When I was about 14 or 15 I decided that I could do many things for myself, that I really didn’t need mom to hand hold me or do a lot of other stuff. Now, I have to admit that my effort was not totally in vain. I was smart enough to go to my mom and other adults and ask them to show me the way.

Getting shown the way (hopefully not the door) was a really smart thing to do. I learned how to cook, clean, wash my clothes, iron —“ all those life skills that make a young man a decent marrying prospect, and prevents him from being a total slob.

Life skills are key to survival, and to living a good, peaceful, and comfortable life. While Google isn’t the definitive word on all things, I think we can infer the importance of life skills by the more than 61 million links to websites about them.

A list:

UNIFEF has put emphasis on life skills as a key component of education. They’ve provided a list of some of the major life skills that should be taught. Among those skills are interpersonal communication, negotiation and conflict management, empathy, cooperation and teamwork, advocacy, decision-making, critical thinking, goal setting, and managing feelings and stress; a lot more than just ironing, cooking, and cleaning.

God’s list:

God has given us a list of life skills, and as people of faith these are the life skills that rise to the top of our list. Of course, the most important of life skills are those taught by our Lord.

Jesus’ coming did more than provide a list. What He gave us was His life lived according to the life skills God wants us to know and adopt. Before Jesus came God repeatedly communicated a set of life skills that are key to our relationships.

Our first reading today was taken from Wisdom. The Wisdom books are all about life skills. The Hebrew word for Wisdom actually means life skills. The Jewish people always saw wisdom as something intensely practical, something to help you live your life. While that is true, the Wisdom books are more than a set of pragmatic, common sense skills that get us through the day, they are focused on God.

Wisdom then is about God’s relationship with us and our relationship with him and each other. Wisdom is having life skills defined by an understanding and proper respect for God and His works.

Getting it:

In today’s prophecy from Wisdom, the Just One, Jesus Christ, confronts all those who didn’t get it, and they stand back amazed and stricken in spirit. It is as if all the irony in life hit them all at once. This example is not just about irony however, nor about those who oppressed Jesus getting their due; it is more about the fact that they didn’t have an understanding of God’s way or a proper respect for God and His works.

Paul, in writing to Timothy, was giving advice on how to run the local Church. Paul was giving practical instruction as to how Timothy should live, how he should administer, and the ways in which he should prepare himself for the tough things. In our Epistle we hear that some will turn away. The reasons they turn away are not really important, but we know that those who turn away can have a devastating effect on a community. The key is that Timothy is to recognize and stand by wisdom, the life skills that make Christians who they are. In other words, Paul is saying that Christians have life skills based in Jesus, and that they are to receive what God gives —with thanksgiving.— Paul’s letter to Timothy teaches one thing: that a Christian’s necessary life skills are love and prayer. With those skills we are able to do all things.

The True Vine:

Many have argued over the passage about the True Vine in today’s Gospel. Some have used Jesus’ words as a metaphor for the Church; Jesus is the vine and there are many branches —“ or kinds of Churches. Others have used it as an argument against Church —“ I don’t need religion, that religion is just a process or an outright falsehood —“ what I really need is to be part of Jesus.

Wrong on all counts. The problem with over analysis and proof-texting the scriptures —“ picking out a verse to prove ones point —“ is that we miss the plain meaning. Jesus is discussing this very key and elemental life skill. We are to follow Him so that we might live. This key life skill is life itself. Not following Jesus is to be —like a withered, rejected branch,— that is, to have no life.

The Church:

Today we celebrate a very important and most solemn day. Today we recall the institution of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church.
The Church is many things, and like UNICEF I could make a list of all the things the Church is. I could carefully explain branch theory and prove that our Church fits the model and mandate of Jesus Christ, as well as the ways and methods set forth in the earliest writing of the Apostles and Church Fathers. I don’t think you would want to hear that.

What we need to focus on today is the why of Church in our lives and the question of why this Church. If you were to ask me: —Deacon, why are you in the PNCC?— I could offer hundreds, if not thousands of reasons, but the key is this.

Life, not death:

Our Holy Church is not about death, but about life. In 1897 it pulled itself out from under the shackles of a Church that focused on death, punishment, sin, and retribution, a Church of power and wealth blind to the cries of its children. A Church who put rule books and process before the life skills necessary — for life.

Our Holy Church spoke to the poor, the workers, the Union organizers, the immigrants with the gleam of hope in their eyes for themselves and for their children.

Our Holy Church looked at Jesus as the Divine Master who came to teach life and to provide the life skills that do more than what is practical. His life skills lead us to life that lasts forever.

That’s what I want, for myself, my family, my children, and for all of us. This Holy Polish National Catholic Church placed the gleam back in my eyes. This Church is the Church that gives us the hope and the life that Jesus was all about.

Our Church teaches that by accepting Jesus as our Divine Master, and following His way, we bind ourselves to the Vine that gives life. In our Holy Church we live a life defined by those necessary skills — love and prayer. In our Church we recognize true wisdom; that we have a relationship with God and with each other. In our Church we gain the life skills, the wisdom necessary for a true and proper understanding as well as respect for God.

We are blessed to have our Holy Church. We are not them, we are not something else, we are PNCC and we are life. Take great comfort in being in this Church and know it, learn about it, cherish it. Know that here we have the life that Jesus wanted for His branches. Amen.

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