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The pride was manifest at St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church in the East Village as members of New York’s Polish community gathered on Divine Mercy Sunday to celebrate the canonization of one of their own.
Father Tadeusz Lizinczyk, O.S.P.P.E, pastor of St. Stanislaus, told CNY that 15 parishioners made the trip to Rome to witness the April 27 ceremony at the Vatican, but for those who couldn’t make it, the parish at 101 E. 7th St. had a full day of special events to mark the historic occasion. The church was filled all day.
A solemn Mass of thanksgiving at noon celebrated the canonizations of both John Paul II and John XXIII.
“Of course you know the central part of every celebration is always Mass,” Father Lizinczyk said. “So at 12 o’clock we had a Mass of thanksgiving for the canonization of these two great popes. Because we are a Polish parish we concentrated on John Paul II. But we remembered that it’s the canonization of both of them.”
Following the Polish-language Mass, the congregation was invited to venerate the holy relic of Pope John Paul II (a vial containing his blood) the parish obtained last April. Parishioners have since gathered every Tuesday at the church to ask for his intercession.
But the emotional highlight of the day may have been the performance staged by the parish’s amateur theater group at 1:30 p.m. in the parish hall. It was a new piece written specifically for the occasion based on the poetry of John Paul II. Father Lizinczyk said the production resonated with its audience. “You could see people crying. It was very emotional,” he said.
One of those who shed tears was the pastor himself.
“There were laughs and tears, including a moment of emotion for our beloved Father Tad who shed a tear as he reflected on our effort,” said parishioner Anna Gamon, who wrote the play and adapted the late pope’s prose and poetry for theater. “We all were very happy with how we were received.”
Pope John Paul II had also been an actor as a young man, so for Ms. Gamon and her amateur troupe this was truly a labor of love.
“Love was shared and hopefully spread. Long hours, very little sleep. But this was our way of saying ‘thank you’ to him,” she said. “We as a group also grew spiritually during this experience. We got to know each other better. I have never before studied the pope’s words so diligently. Maybe for the first time ever I actually heard what he was saying!”
She acknowledged the unique place Pope John Paul II has in the hearts of the Polish people.
“This was my pope, my parents’ pope, and my grandparents’ pope. He was the most important Pole for us,” she affirmed. “To my parents and grandparents he brought hope that one day Poland would be a truly free country. The day he was elected, they knew Poland wouldn’t stay on the same history path. I don’t think they knew how much impact he would have on bringing down communism, but they knew he was the best Poland could ask for at that moment of our history.”
“He told us never to give up. To trust in God and open your heart,” added parishioner Greg Madej, who co-directed the play. “He was a hero to me.”
The play was followed by a chaplet to mark Divine Mercy Sunday, which Pope John Paul II established at the April 30, 2000 canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who had visions of Jesus. It is a day devoted to Christ’s mercy through confession and Holy Communion and so an opportunity for confession was made available to parishioners at St. Stanislaus. Another Mass was celebrated at 4 p.m., followed by a discussion on the legacy of John Paul II and his impact on the Catholic Church and the world. It was led by Father Paul A. Bielecki, O.F.M. Cap.
“It was great,” said Father Lizinczyk of the day’s events. “We had many people for the Mass of thanksgiving, for the theater (presentation), for the Holy Hour because of Divine Mercy Sunday. Busy, busy for us but great!”
He said parishioners had been looking forward to the day for a long time. Some believe the future pope may have visited St. Stanislaus during a visit to the United States in 1976 while still a cardinal. But Father Lizinczyk said there was no proof of that.
“It means a lot,” he said of the historic dual canonization but, particularly, the canonization of the Polish pope. “We’ve been praying, waiting and preparing in our church for a whole year since last April when we got the relics of Pope John Paul. He’s one of us, a Polish guy who made a really great impact on our lives because of the freedom that he brought, working toward the end of communism. Our parishioners can’t appreciate enough his impact on our lives and the life of the Church in Poland.”
