Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
The Rt. Rev. Bernard Nowicki, Bishop Ordinary of the Central Diocese of the PNCC leads the Bayonne contingent in the 2012 Pułaski Day Parade in New York City.
More photos ar Smilebox.
The Polish American Journal is sponsoring a Veteran’s Day Scholarship Contest for high school students honoring Lt. Col. Matthew L. Urban, the most decorated soldier in United States military history. Six awards will be made to winners and runners-up. Students must submit an essay entitled “Why I Think the United States Postal Service Should Issue a Stamp Commemorating Lt. Col. Matthew L. Urban.” Entries must be submitted no later than November 11, 2012. Download the rules, eligibility, and submission criteria by clicking on the picture below.
Pola Negri Stories
The Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles is sponsoring a presentation of Kazimierz Braun’s Pola Negri Stories at Magicopolis, 1418 4th Street, Santa Monica, CA on Sunday, September 30th at 5pm.
Pola Negri Stories is a fascinating spectacle about a silent film star, Pola Negri. The play, written by the eminent playwright and director, Kazimierz Braun, follows Pola Negri’s career and presents its highlights, with film excerpts. This rare treat will be in Polish; with Agata Pilitowska as Pola Negri and Maria Nowotarska. The silent-film era costumes will delight the audience, as will the sultry and passionate portrayal of the famous actress.
This is a touring production by Teatr Polski from Toronto, Ontario (Polish Theater of Toronto) and will be presented in Polish. Tickets are open to Modjeska Club members through September 15th. After that tickets will be available to the general public ($35 guests, $20 club members).
Dozynki/Harvest Festival
All are invited to Holy Mother of Sorrows PNCC two day event next Saturday and Sunday, September 8th and 9th starting with a Giant Flea Market from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 8th and then from 11 a.m. to dusk on Sunday, September 9th for the 36th Annual Dozynki/Harvest Festival.
Events will be held on the parish grounds on Wyoming Avenue. In addition to the many vendors under the big tent, the flea market will also have a Country Store of fresh fruits and vegetables and a variety of Polish foods. The Annual Harvest Festival will have a variety of homemade ethnic foods: pierogi, potato pancakes, golubki, kluski, kielbasa, sausage, soups and funnel cakes, etc. as well as American foods of hot dogs and ham burgers. Homemade baked goods, including pies and cakes, will be available.
Live music will be performed by Joe Lastovica and the Polka Punch from 3 to 6 p.m. Other attractions at the Festival are: 50/50 Bingo, Big Raffle, Chinese Auction, Arts and Crafts, Children’s and Youth Stand.
The traditional Blessing of Harvest Wreath Ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. in the church followed by a procession taking the wreath outdoors to the festival grounds for a brief program and where everyone will be greeted as you pass the wreath with a taste of bread, cheese and wine and a small token of good luck, a wheat boutonniere tied with red and white ribbon.
Mark Lewandowski’s writes about studying the Polish language (sorta) in The Polish Lesson at the Bad Penny Review. Mr. Lewandowski has been listed as “Notable” in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best American Travel Writing, and twice in The Best American Essays. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Siauliai, Lithuania and, from 1991-1993, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland.
The other Peace Corps volunteers practiced their Polski with their host families, but Arek, a young college student, had requested a cipka for the summer training session, and soon after finding out he’d be putting up a mężczyzna, all bedraggled and bushy bearded no less, he left me alone in the first floor apartament for days at a time, where I learned to butcher the consonant clusters and noun declensions with no help at all…
Half na pół, literally half and half is a mixing of Polish and English phrases in conversation, or the conversion of English words into a Polish variant.
Get caught up with trends in current Polish writing with over 40 stories contained in Warsaw Tales: A Collection of Contemporary Writing from Poland.
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R.J. Rolak reporting.
From the Wausau Daily Herald: Our Savior National Catholic Church celebrates Polish heritage
Even if your heritage is French and Indian, you become a little bit Polish when you’re at Our Savior’s Polish Fest.
The annual festival of Our Savior National Catholic Church in Mosinee just has that way about it, at least according to Bucky Bucknell, 69, of Mosinee. Bucknell, who has the French and Indian heritage, has been volunteering at the event since he started attending the church 22 years ago. Both the festival and the church tend to draw people in, Bucknell said.
July 7 and 8 marked the 37th year the church has played host to Polish Fest, held in the Mosinee Rec Center and featuring Polish food such as sausage and kraut, golabki (a cabbage, rice and meat dish) and pierogies. The celebration of all things Polish also features plenty of Polish polka music, Polish beer and some activities such as raffles and a rummage sale.
The food is the big draw, Bucknell said.
“It ain’t run to the store and buy the stuff,” he said. “Everybody puts a lot of pride into it.”
On Saturday, people stood in line to fill up on the food — the pierogies were so good they tempted non-Poles to add a c, z, y and k to their last name.
The festival drew Russ and Theresa Napiwocki, both 45, north from Stevens Point.
The couple love attending church picnics, especially if they feature polka music. “I’ve been dancing since I was 6,” Russ said.
The Polish food was icing on the cake. “You just can’t get food like this in a restaurant,” Theresa said.
Vacen Osowski, 92, of Mosinee founded Polish Fest in 1975. He knew he had a hit on his hand when “we went through 110 half-barrels of beer, and we had 5,000 pierogies and we ran out.”
He ran the festival for about 15 years, but now he just helps out as he can.
Osowski said the food has always been a draw, for those of Polish heritage or not.
“The people like Polish food. That’s all there is to it,” he said.
Andrew Golebiowski, Chair of the Polish Legacy Project of Buffalo shared the news of the passing of ś.p. Daniel Kij on Tuesday, August 2nd. I had known ś.p. Daniel for years. He was a mainstay in the life of the Western New York and National Polonian community. Andrew writes:
Daniel made a big impact on everyone he came in contact with. You may have known Daniel as a friend, taken a trip to Poland with him, been helped with a search for your family roots or taught how to pronounce your name, or you may have taken part in a Polish-Jewish conversation with him, or even sang with him. You may have merely known him from television, back when he was a frequent advisor to local media during the Solidarity era in Poland.
Those of us who considered him our friend are greatly inspired by his involvement in genealogy and the creation of a Polish Museum of W.N.Y. We hope to match his passion for the community and for knowledge about our heritage and the world we live in.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
Wieczne odpoczynek racz im dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj im świeci.
Niech odpoczywają w pokoju, Amen.
The cover of this week’s Newsweek Polska – Dad in a cassock: How the Church tolerates the double life of priests.
I am very happy that a major publication in Poland is covering this issue. As I have said in many other posts, celibacy is a wonderful gift, granted by the Holy Spirit to those whom the Spirit wills. It is not a gift given on demand, or a simple promise, it doesn’t work that way. God is not under our control. The Roman Church really needs to get their thinking right on this issue and in line with the Orthodox Church, Oriental Church, and the PNCC. A proper disposition in the Church is to be honest, not to lie, not to cover up. There’s been enough damage caused by such things – imagine how these cover ups play on the minds, hearts, and souls of “secret wives” and children without honest fathers.
By Raymond Rolak
Maria talks confidently about her support, especially from her high school sweetheart Joey Coffey. She gushes with pride about her Polish-American roots. Her family is paramount to her, especially her mom and dad, Sue and Rich Michta. She brags about her siblings, Ricky, Kristie and Katie and growing up on Long Island, New York. They are all going to London to cheer her on, to help support her excellence.
She is inspired by the stories from her grandfather, Chester, who came from a rural village in Poland.
At the 20-K Race Walk trials at the University of Oregon, her mother went hoarse with the constant yells of encouragement. The former Long Island University-Post cross country and track standout had a finish line time of 1 hour, 34 minutes, 53 seconds at the Olympic Trials.
All the support helps. The real satisfaction comes from her individual perseverance. It has been a long road. The New York State Public High School Athletic Association is one of the few states that have Race Walk in the state Track and Field championships. Mitchta was a three time state champion at Sachem High School in Long Island.
“I played soccer and really enjoyed that,” she said. “My mom and dad really gave us all great opportunities.”
Maria is a constant ambassador for her sport and she has become a world traveler. She has already competed in 11 different countries. She is the first Long Island University-Post student-athlete to ever qualify for an Olympic team.
Most impressive is her focus toward academics. She graduated as Valedictorian in 2008 from Long Island University-Post with a 4.0 GPA. The determined doctoral candidate is working in microbiology, analyzing the Hepatitis-C virus at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai College of Medicine.
Race walking differs from running in that it requires the competitor to maintain contact with the ground and straighten their front knee when the foot makes contact with the ground, keeping it straightened until the knee passes under the body. Judges evaluate the technique of race walkers and report fouls which may lead to disqualification. All decisions are done by the eye of the judge and no outside technology is used in making judging resolutions.
The U.S. Olympic Trials in Track and Field were at the historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The Olympic Trials had more than 1,000 qualifiers competing for Olympic berths in their respective events.
Maria said it best in her diary, “The logo of the trials was: Amazing Awaits! And that’s exactly how I came away from that race, amazing awaits, I had 4 years to turn an 8th place non-Olympic Standard performance into a first place victory complete with an Olympic Games Standard. Every day brings me one more step closer to achieving my dream. It’s what motivates me every day to get up on frigid cold or sweltering hot mornings and get out there training, often alone, all in the pursuit of making the 2012 Olympic Team. My motto has always been Dream, Believe, and Become. I’ve had the Dream since 1996, I truly began to believe in myself in 2010, and I am currently training to my fullest until I Become an Olympian!”
Michta has become an Olympian. Maria, along with her USA teammates, is now headed for the Olympic Village in London.
The Race Walk is dominated by Russia’s Olga Kaniskina. Kaniskina won gold in Beijing and since then she also won the 2011 world championship. Other top rivals figure to be Russian teammates Yelena Lashmanova and Anisya Kirdyapkina. China’s Liu Hong and Shenjie Qieyang, along with Italy’s Elisa Rigaudo will be medal contenders. Michta will be the lone American competitor.
NBC will televise 12 hours of live Track and Field events from London. The opening ceremonies will be Friday, July 27th and the women’s 20-K Race Walk finals at the 2012 London Olympics will be August 11.
John Dabrowski contributed