From Dr. John Guzlowski remembering the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe: D-Day Remembrance
Today, June 6, is the anniversary of the invasion of Europe, and by chance I was in a high school about to begin a presentation about my parents and their experiences in the Nazi concentration camps when an announcement came on asking the students in the school to remember the anniversary of D-Day.
As the speaker talked about what D-Day was, I thought about all that day meant to me, my parents’ long years as Polish forced laborers in Nazi Germany, the refugee camps after the war, the family killed and left behind, our coming to the US as DPs.
When the announcement ended, I began my presentation with a poem about my father’s liberation from the camps. Here’s the poem:
In the Spring the War Ended
For a long time the war was not in the camps.
My father worked in the fields and listened
to the wind moving the grain, or a guard
shouting a command far off, or a man dying…
SCRANTON – Newly ordained 25 years ago, the Rt. Rev. John E. Mack had modest goals.
He became pastor of a Polish National Catholic Church parish in Massachusetts.
On Sunday, the 55-year-old Detroit, Mich., native was installed as eighth bishop of the Central Diocese, the church’s largest, covering Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and stretching into Colorado and Los Angeles.
“You don’t become a priest thinking you’re going to become a bishop,” said Mack after the solemn ceremony and Mass at St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Cathedral attended by approximately 200 people and bishops and priests from other dioceses.
“It’s something God calls you to,” he said.
The church, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, was founded [sic] in 1897 by the Rev. Franciszek Hodur, who was pastor of the cathedral and the first bishop. Mack has been pastor at the mother church on East Locust Street since February, when he was assigned to head the diocese. He previously served as auxiliary bishop of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese for three years.
The promotion requires him to serve in more than one role, said his predecessor, the Most Rev. Anthony A. Mikovsky, who was elevated to Prime Bishop of the church.
He must be a teacher, ensuring what is taught is in accordance with the faith, and he must be keeper of the faith, Mikovsky noted.
“Above all of these, the bishop is to be a shepherd,” said Mikovsky, pointing out the symbolism of the wooden staff carried by Mack as leader of the flock.
Mikovsky imparted some advice, acknowledging Mack had heard it before, “My brother John, I tell you something you already know, love your people.”
And to the people, Mikovsky said, “Pray for your bishop.”
Mack has made a good impression on Barbara Placek of Harding.
“I think he’s going to be good. He brings a refreshing essence to the church,” she said.
“He’s musically oriented,” she added.
Mack started taking piano lessons when he was 8 from his great aunt Laura Jaworowski of Clifton, N.J., when she spent summers with his family, according to a church biography of the new bishop. Mack and his wife, Sherry, have three children and all of them participated in the installation. Their daughter, Rebecca, 24, served as cantor. Their sons, Andrew, 17, played the flute and Phillip, 21, was a lector.
Three decades ago, seminarian John Mack taught St. Stanislaus children catechism, followed with a lesson on the basketball court.
At 6 feet 3 inches, Mr. Mack impressed his students with a passion for the Lord and the layup. Sunday, some of those former students looked on as the man they met as a seminarian was installed as bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church’s Central Diocese at a Mass at St. Stanislaus Cathedral
“He was very friendly and energetic,” said one of those students, Fred Aebli, after the service. “It’s neat to see him come back in such a big way.”
Yours truly as Deacon, Bishop Mack, Subdeacon Donald WunderlichBishop Mack had been in the post since Feb. 1, but his era as the eighth bishop of the Scranton-based religion officially began at the Mass with the certification of the election results and passing of the symbolic pastoral staff.
Prime Bishop Anthony Mikovsky reminded those at the ceremony that the elected bishop has the authority of God and God’s people, and he exhorted them to “Unite in faith…. follow, listen and work.”
Bishop Mack had recently been auxiliary bishop in the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese. He was elected to the new post after Bishop Mikovsky was elected prime bishop in the fall.
Bishop Mack will also serve as pastor of St. Stanislaus Cathedral, the denomination’s mother church.
While Bishop Mack moved on from his education in Scranton, he never really left, said Joe Nasser, president of the St. Stanislaus Men’s Association.
With the headquarters of the church in the city, he was a common sight in Scranton throughout his career.
“He’s the same as a bishop as he has always been in his career: down-to-earth, a good communicator, and easy to get a hold of,” Mr. Nasser said. “The new leadership has made this an exciting time here.”
After the Mass, the church held a reception in the parish youth center.
Bishop Mack was born and raised in the Polish National Catholic Church in the Greater Detroit area and attended Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. — 1 Peter 4:12-16
I’m posting as an additional reflection on the recent tornado in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts which touched down about one mikle away from St. Joseph’s PNC Parish.
Here are the first two stanzas of this powerful poem. As a parent, it tore through me.
My Daughter Lillian is Outside Playing
In the quiet space of the dining room
My wife and I lay out the place settings
The forks beside the Wedgwood plates
The spoons and knives in their places…
A Fair Food Potluck will take place in front of Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s Del Posto Restaurant in support of the more than restaurant 40 workers at who are fighting to improve their workplace. They demand that managers be trained to stop discrimanation, racism, sexual harassment, and verbal and physical abuse on the job! The workers are also demanding an end to wage theft and the misappropriation of their tips by the company.
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) is a non-profit organization that seeks improved working conditions for restaurant workers citywide. ROC-NY assists restaurant workers seeking legal redress against employers who violate their employment rights. ROC-NY seeks to provide customers and the public with information about the litigation in this restaurant through these handbills, not to interfere with current workers or with deliveries.
Last Chance to Register for IWJ’s June 19-21 National Conference!
Share strategies for building labor-religion partnerships, fighting wage theft and strengthening worker centers by attending IWJ’s National Conference in Chicago June 19-21! Click here to register!
Special plenary and workshop sessions have been added on the Public Sector Worker Fights in response to the vicious attacks on public sector workers. Come learn, strategize, and collaborate as we take a stand against these unprecedented attacks. As people of faith, we are called to step forth and condemn these outrageous attacks on teachers, police officers, fire fighters, public health workers, and other public employees who provide vital services to our communities. An attack on public sector workers is an attack on all workers.
A pre-conference Interfaith Theological Symposium for Worker Justice will also take place. The interfaith symposium is a gathering of theologians, students, religious activists and labor leaders to connect with and be supported by the theological groundings offered within different faith traditions. The interactive symposium will highlight presentations from Muslim, Jewish and Christian experts in the field of economic justice.
If you can’t make the whole conference, join in on Monday June 20 for IWJ’s 15th Anniversary Celebration, which will include tasty appetizers, fine wines, inspiring union songs and gospel music, and 400 religious and labor activists. Reconnect with former staff, leaders, summer interns, and seminarians. Meet the new leaders of the worker center movement. Buy your tickets today or donate $100 so that one of IWJ’s senior citizen volunteers can enjoy the party!
Learn about Worker Misclassification, Workers Comp Fraud, Untaxed Cash Pay, Money Laundering, and Racketeering and how these employer payroll frauds steal from taxpayers, the government, and insurers. It violates workers’ rights and costs jobs for law-abiding companies and their employees. Learn more about these multi-billion-dollar crimes and growing state and federal efforts to fight back.
Florida’s video: Cheat to Compete:
From Florida’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Fraud (BWCF), Division of Insurance Fraud. The video shows fraud schemes seen in the construction industry. Think what you are building is safe and above board? Always ask if your contractor’s workers are employees or independent contractors. If they are “independent contractors” choose someone else. When push comes to shove, the company you contract with will take no responsibility for the work of its alleged “independent contractors” who may also be uninsured.
One might say that living a bilingual life offers enriched experience, but I say it also brings confusion and struggle during the first years of learning, especially when the second language enters someone’s life in the second or third decade. I am not sure if there is a moment when two different languages can merge and become “one” or if they always exist as separate platforms of experience and expression.
Translating my novel, Zabić Innego, originally written in Polish, into To Kill the Other, taught me the value of time and persistent repetition, something that’s hard to admit and even harder to accept in today’s fast-paced world.
For those of us who are born into single-language families — meaning the mother and the father speak the same language — the world becomes entrenched in the sound of the language in a singular if not monotonous way. In this case language becomes unequivocal with objects, actions, feelings, and emotions. I can’t decide if the context of life imposes itself on language or if the language underlines the context. Perhaps the two options are intertwined and impossible to separate.
…
The interesting question revolves around the second language. What happens when we learn another language, the so-called “second language,” later in our lives?
My experience tells me that the second language becomes an exotic realm of existence: appealing, promising, and — against all hope — unattainable…
Florence Waszkelewicz Clowes of the Polish American Journal has invited authors to contact her if they have interest in a review by the Journal.
oriana-poetry reflects on the poetry, theology, and alcoholism of Czesław Miłosz in Milosz At The Gates Of Heaven. A excellent reflection contracting the faith of Agape with the faith of predestination and damnation.
Sober Reader, you yawn: yet another famous poet turns out to have been an alcoholic. “Heaven is the third vodka” – should we even bother discussing what for non-alcoholics is sheer nonsense? And is it really true that great writers need a “charismatic flaw,” as the literary critic Leslie Fiedler claimed, that flaw generally being dependence on alcohol?
Milosz writes: “My real drinking began in earnest in occupied Warsaw with my future wife Janka and Jerzy Andrzejewski (author of Ashes and Diamond) . . . I drank a lot, but always took care to separate time for work from time for letting go . . . Alas, too many generations of my ancestors drank for me to have been free from the urge for the bottle.” (Milosz’s ABC, p. 18)
…I am interested in the acutely bitter tone of this unique poem. Is this Job speaking, subtly accusing the Old One (as Einstein liked to refer to God)? Let’s not forget that Milosz is a metaphysical poet, and can provide us with a certain metaphysical shiver when we consider the kind of cruel deterministic theology that is still very powerful, while progressive Christian theologies remain anemic.
“An Alcoholic Enters the Gates of Heaven” is especially interesting in the light of the recent prediction by a fundamentalist preacher, Harold Camping (a happy camper, since he regards himself as one of those predestined to taste paradise) that the Last Judgment would take place Saturday May 21st at 6 PM (Eastern Standard Time, I think). I have also just read an interesting summary of crucifixion-centered theologies versus progressive theologies. The preacher who was predicting the end of the world belongs to the first tradition, of Christ seen both as a sacrificial victim, a “sin sacrifice,” and – this seems an egregiously un-Christian concept – as the ultimate judge who will accept the chosen few and hurl billions of souls into eternal torment.
Progressive theologies, on the other hand, are fascinated by early Christianity that emphasized agape (loving kindness; a community of affection) and paradise rather than hell. The basic tenet of progressive theologies is that the Second Coming is the birth of Christ Consciousness within us and among us, in the global community. We are here to build the kingdom of God on earth. God intends all souls to be saved. Paradise is here and now.
Alas, progressive theologians do not seem to have the PR resources commanded by the “blood of the Lamb/Armageddon” theologies. The only time there seemed to be true hope for progressive theologies was when Rabbi Kushner’s famous book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, became a best-seller. Kushner posited a deity with limited powers, one who neither causes nor prevents cancer, heart attacks, tsunamis, and other disasters. God does not decide which child will get leukemia, or who will grow up to be an alcoholic. Some evil is the work of natural laws (these days, an earthquake is rarely called an “act of God”); other kinds of evil are the work of man. Afterwards, everything depends on our response: do we curse and despair and can’t move on, or do we summon the strength to transcend the tragedy? Faith is one of the resources that can increase people’s strength to endure and recover. (Twelve-step programs also come to mind.)…
John Guzlowski reads Beets, about his mother’s experience in the Nazi slave labor camps in Germany during WWII. The poem is taken from his book Lightning and Ashes.
…and from yours truly, a friend I assisted in assembling Poetry and Sundry, a book of poems on a myriad of subjects, particularly interpersonal relationships, sex, passion, regret, faith, commitment, love, places, and Polish related subjects:
Constructed sequence events.
Latin: narrare, “to recount.”
Latin: gnarus, “knowing.”
Recounting what we know.
But for us, history unwritten.
No available narrative.
Certainly members of narratives,
Other definitions,
Background stories.
Ours unwritten.
So we have begun, to inscribe.
And the poem Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen.
Kohanim.
You know God – serving Him as priest.
Touching all the essentials
in poetry and song —
love, longing, war, eroticism, spirituality.
Things at our core
that transcend.
Things that quake us.
