The festival take place on the first Thursday after Corpus Christi every year as it has for 700 years.
Picture and videos are available from the rededication of the restored statue of Madame Skłodowska Curie at the Polish Cultural Gardens in Cleveland on Sunday, June 7th.
Author, Alex Storozynski, will provide a multi-media presentation about The Peasant Prince, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution on C-SPAN, Saturday, June 13 at 4pm and Sunday, June 14 at 6pm and midnight. Check your local cable listings for times particular to your area.
Mr. Storozynski will also be conducting a book signing at Barnes & Noble, 82nd Street and Broadway, New York, NY on Monday, June 22 at 7pm.
Fr. Robert Hart of the Continuum Blog has an interesting article on the “Dutch Touch” and Anglican Orders. In The Dutch Touch: A study in irrelevance he says:
Frankly, Saepius Officio, written in 1897 by the Archbishops of England (Canterbury and York) said everything that needed to be said in defense of our Orders, and the best summary anywhere is that of Bicknell.
As for the subject of the Infusion itself, it is a relic of an innocent age of ecumenical hope, that innocence and hope that would suffer destruction for the official Anglican Communion in 1976. If the Infusion may help someday between orthodox Anglicans of the Continuum and Rome or, restart some ecumenical relations with the Polish National Catholic Church, then maybe it will not have been a big wasted effort after all.
Until such a time, who cares?
Two observations: First, I think that ecumenical contact between orthodox Anglicans and the PNCC would be a fine thing. We offer the Declaration of Scranton as a point of unity between national churches, and as a structural building block in accord with the National Church philosophy expounded by Bishop Hodur.
The interesting thing about the word continuum is that it means a connection that surpasses the here and now. At core it is a continuation of a Church’s traditions, practices, and character (of course only important if they are Catholic in character and in fact). I have said before, including to local clergy of the TAC, swimming the Tiber will eventually lead to the dissolution of everything that you are. Simply put, the weight of the Roman Church will subsume the TAC and any other Continuum Church that joins it, just as Anglican Use parishes will disappear within two generations.
I also think that there is another issue that gets lost in the whole swimming the Tiber spirit within the TAC, “Is that what your people really want? Just as among clergy some will say yes, but I believe that a majority will see what I see, that ‘who they are’ will slip away.
My second observation, and I congratulate Fr. Hart for making the point, is “who cares.” That is really the point if your Church believes itself to be Catholic. Like the Orthodox Churches we need to place less emphasis on what Rome thinks of us and more on what we think of ourselves (and no emphasis on what some over-the-top on-line R.C. pundits and detractors think of us). The full body of Catholic Churches are, in their varied external manifestations (those whose ecclesiology, polity, and praxis are Catholic), the totality of the Church, which is truly universal.
Dedication of Sculpture of Madame Marie Skłodowska Curie in the Polish Cultural Garden, corner of St. Clair and East Boulevard, Cleveland, on Sunday, June 7th at 3pm. The featured speaker will be Marie Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D.
Marie Siemionow, was awarded her medical degree by the Poznan Medical Academy in 1974, after which she completed her residency in orthopedics, and then earned a Ph. D. in microsurgery. Since 1995 she has been Director of Plastic Surgery Research and Head of Microsurgery Training in the Plastic Surgery Department of Cleveland Clinic.
In 2005, she was awarded a faculty appointment as Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Most recently, she received an honorary academic appointment as Professor of Surgery at the Medical University in Poznan, Poland.
Dr. Siemionow is the first U.S. physician to receive Institutional Review Board approval for facial transplantation surgery.
The bronze bust of Maria Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934), acclaimed scientist and a pioneer in researching radioactive substances, co-discoverer of radium and polonium, and Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911 —” was donated in 1949 by the American Polish Women’s Club. The Curie bust is the work of Frank L. Jirouch, and was originally dedicated on June 5, 1949.
The Cleveland Cultural Gardens is a unique American landscape located in Cleveland. It is composed of 23 sections that represent the cultural backgrounds of Cleveland’s diverse population.
The Alliance of Poles
From the great folks at St. Peter’s. I encourage all to attend. St. Peter’s is a wonderful parish filled with warm and inviting people, and their food is fantastic!
High Noon – June 4, 1989
Do not sleep because it’s time to vote.
Zachowaj, Panie Boże, Ojczyznę naszą.
Która w Tobie, Boże nasz, nadzieję pokłada.Ześlij, Panie, pomoc z przybytku Twego.
Z nieba wysokiego wesprzyj ją.Niech nie weźmie nad nią góry nieprzyjaciel.
A duch nieprawości niech jej nie szkodzi.Niech Bóg sprowadzi pokój i szczęście do domu jej.
I bezpieczeństwo do posiadłości jej.Panie, wysłuchaj modlitwę moją.
A wołanie nasze niech do Ciebie przyjdzie.Pan z Wami.
I z duchem Twoim.Módlmy się: Błagamy Cię Panie, za przyczyną Najświętszej Maryi Panny, Królowej Polski, i wstawiennictwem Świętych Patronów naszych, ochraniaj Rzeczpospolita Polska od wszelkich przeciwności, zachowaj ją od zasadzek nieprzyjaciól oraz błogosław nam i władzom naszym we wszystkich dobrych przedsięwzięciach. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
Pomoc Boźa niech będzie zawsze z nami. Amen. — From Ojcze Nasz
Translation by Dcn. Jim
Save, O Lord God, our Motherland.
For in You, O God, we have our hope.Lord, bring Your help from on high.
From on high, aid us.May the enemy not overtake us.
Nor a spirit of evil harm us.May God bring peace and happiness to our homeland.
And security to her possessions.Lord, hear our prayer.
And let our cry come unto you.The Lord be with you.
And also with you.Let us pray: Vouchsafe O Lord, through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland, and through the intercession of our Patron Saints, protect our Republic of Poland, keep it from enemy ambush and bless us and our authorities in all good works. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the Lord is our help, now, and forever and ever. Amen.
A cultural tour of Krakow
A well-known photographer takes CNN’s Fred Pleitgen on a cultural and pictorial tour of Krakow, Poland.
From the DAWN Media Group: Poland’s Roman Catholic Church urges followers to vote
WARSAW: Poland’s powerful Roman Catholic Church is urging it’s huge flock in the country to use the European Parliament election this week to pick lawmakers who reflect church values.
More than 90 percent of Poles are Catholic and Polish bishops recently called on ‘all faithful to choose people in the elections who fully represent the point of view of the Church regarding ethical and social questions, in particular the protection of human life, marriage and the family.’
‘In this way, each one of us can contribute to the renewal of the Christian face and culture of Europe,’ the top clergy said, highlighting their opposition to abortion, in vitro fertilisation, euthanasia and gay marriage.
‘Obviously the church thinks it is it’s obligation to take a position in the debate,’ sociologist Jacek Kucharczyk from the independent Institute of Public Affairs (ISP) think tank in Warsaw told AFP.
‘Nevertheless, many Poles who define themselves as Catholics do not accept the church’s involvement in politics,’ he added. ‘They don’t like to have priests indicate candidates that a Catholic should support.’ During Poland’s 2001 parliamentary elections, Poles voted en masse for the leftist ex-communist party and for ex-communist Aleksander Kwasniewski as president in 1995, instead of Poland’s Solidarity union legend Lech Walesa, a devout Catholic. Kwasniewski won a second term in 2000…
This is why the Roman Church in Poland is loosing adherents, most particularly among the young. Prof. Zdislaw Mach, Director of the Centre for European Studies, Jagiellonian University, concludes in The Roman Catholic Church in Poland and the Dynamics of Social Identity in Polish Society:
To sum up, it seems that the Roman Catholic Church finds it difficult to respond to new challenges which arise from the development of democracy in eastern Europe and of the desire of those countries to join European institutions. The Church still uses the discourse of conflict, inherited after communist times, when the Church built its unique position, at least in the Catholic countries like Poland. Moral monopoly and direct influence on the state and the law are still its main aims. The pluralistic model is not particularly popular among the Church representatives and, consequently, the result of their activities is creation of boundaries dividing the society along religious lines. On the other hand the Church is very slow in reforming itself in such a way that would be more flexible and better adapted to the rules of the market and ideological competition. Consequently the Church is loosing its popular support and its influence, and often relies on the old methods of ideological polarisation and the discourse of conflict to win its cause.
Among my friends and acquaintances in Poland, this rings true. Their children have no attachment to the Church. They see the Church as a force organized for the purpose of political gain. What they truly seek is an enrichment of the inner life of the soul, from which the fruitful decisions the Church advocates for will come. But that’s a long process, the building of a society from within. It seems easier to pound the pulpit and demand the vote under penalty of hell. Just the sort of thing Fr. Hodur and the Catholics of Scranton rallied against in 1897.
Lights, camera … Poland
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen visits a Polish film school that has produced some of the world’s greatest filmmakers.
Polish economy going strong
CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen on the state of the Polish economy, which is faring much better than its neighbors.
Polish cuisine comeback
After the collapse of communism, Polish people also opted for fast food restaurants, but they are going back to their roots.
Birthplace of Solidarity
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen visits the town where Poland’s uprising against communism began.
Poland’s free media
Poland’s media has flourished since the fall of communism. CNN’s Fionnuala Sweeney reports.
Catholic Poland
Fred Pleitgen reports on the power and influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland.