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Perspective, PNCC,

History of German parishes in the U.S.

Also from Miguel José Ernst-Sandoval at Philadelphia Roamin’ Catholic: The Decline of the German National Parish.

It is a testament to the multi-cultural history of these United States that there are national parishes in many of the American dioceses. National parishes serve the spiritual needs of any ethnic group not belonging to the local culture or speaking the local language. Of course there are many national parishes in Rome for the multitudes of pilgrims, but there is also a multitude of them in North America due to the many waves of immigrants that sailed to our shores. Wikipedia defines a national parish as such:

National parishes are Catholic parishes that serve particular ethnic communities. They are distinguished from the other type of parish, the territorial parish, which serve a geographic area of a diocese. National parishes have existed in North America since the late eighteenth century, when they were established to meet the needs of immigrants not speaking the language of the majority population. The first national parish was Holy Trinity German National Parish founded in 1788 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the eastern United States the territorial parish is where the Irish-American, and the small number of English (or Anglo-) American, Catholics worship. In California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana, the territorial parish is often Spanish-American, Mexican-American or French Cajun. The first national parish in the United States, however, served the many German immigrants coming to Pennsylvania…

Not to be confused with National Catholic parishes, i.e., PNCC parishes, the article presents an illustrated history of the parishes built by German Roman Catholics. It also provides a glimmer of hope for the future of these magnificent edifices in light of the proliferation of church closings.

As I noted on my post Reflections on national, cultural, and religious identity, Bishop Hodur taught that each person, nation, and culture has specific gifts and insights which add to the totality of the Christian experience. In part this article supports that, for instance in pointing to the contributions of German Catholics in the areas of music and architecture. This is not a bygone philosophy, but a philosophy that supports the gifts of God that exist within every person, nation, and culture. The National Catholic movement embraces that idea – in its democratic component, in its life. The Church supports each man and woman in expressing their gifts, supports each culture in offering its gifts – all for the building up of God’s Kingdom.

Those efforts, imperfect though they may be, look to the totality of the human experience and our encounter with Emmanuel, God with us.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Krakow Tourist Information Guide

From Dr. Hostel: Krakow Tourist Information Guide.

Krakow is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland, Situated on the Vistula river in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Krakow from 1846 to 1918, and the capital of Krakow Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.

Krakow has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish scientific, cultural and artistic life. As the former national capital with a history encompassing more than a thousand years, the city remains the spiritual heart of Poland. It is a major attraction for local and international tourists, attracting seven million visitors annually…

An excellent overview and travelogue for anyone planning a trip to Kraków or for anyone interested in Polish history and culture. All of their guides are well put together and avoid chauvinistic effusiveness. They give a clear introduction to various destinations.

In addition to Krakow site also covers Zakopane, Gdansk, Łódz, Poznań, Toruń, Warsawa, and Wrocław.

Check it out.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

The story of Polish Catholics in Duluth

From DuluthCommunityNews: Left out in the cold: The story of Polish Catholics in Duluth.

An interesting article that provides a historic overview of the emergence of the PNCC in Duluth. The piece was produced by the Duluth Community News, a project run by journalism students at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Their project tells the stories of Duluth neighborhoods, exploring different communities and issues throughout the city of Duluth.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Film, Battle for Warsaw, on tour with BBC filmmaker Wanda Koscia

Via Poland in the Rockies, Wanda Koscia’s film, Battle for Warsaw will be shown in the following locations starting October 19th:

  • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 19, 2:30pm, Mississauga Central Library, Noel Ryan Auditorium, 301 Burnhamthorpe Road
  • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 20, 6:30pm, University of Toronto, Emmanuel College, 75 Queen’s Park Crescent, Room 001
  • Chicago, October 22, 7:00pm, The Chopin Theater, 1543 W Division St., Chicago, IL 60642
  • Montreal, Quebec, Canada, October 26, 2:00pm, De Sève Cinema, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve West

Born in London of Polish parents, Wanda Koscia is a Producer/Director specializing in history and current affairs for the BBC. For over two decades she worked extensively across the former Soviet bloc on a number of major television series, including: The Struggles for Poland (1985), The Other Europe (1988), The Hand of Stalin. Leningrad (1989), The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1990), Death of Yugoslavia (1995), Tourists of the Revolution (1998). Other credits include Intelligence to Please part of Discovery series Why Intelligence Fails (2004) and several years on the BBC flagship history program, Timewatch. Also at the BBC she made over three hours of documentary films to accompany Dunkirk, a major factual drama. Her interviews were then made into an award winning documentary: The Soldiers Story. In 2005 she made a film about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (featuring an interview with her own mother who was a participant aged 16). The Battle of Warsaw was shown on Discovery Europe and the BBC. In the mid 1980s, Wanda spent a year at Radio Free Europe working in the Research Department’s Underground Publications Unit. During the 1980s she was active in the Solidarity support group in London.

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

Light on history, heavy on propoganda

This article: Diocese’s recommended consolidations reflect move away from ethnic parishes, which appeared in The Citizens Voice was such a propaganda piece that I just had to comment.

The article attempts to give a history of Roman Catholic parishes in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania:

More than a century ago, a congregation of people of German heritage decided to start St. Boniface Parish in Wilkes-Barre. Parishioners previously had to travel down to the German parish, St. Nicholas on Washington Street, or go to one of the territorial parishes for Mass and school.

—Children had to cross railroad tracks to get to school; it was dangerous,— Brother DePorres Stilp said. —So they tried to make a new church here in the neighborhood.—

Stilp’s grandfather was one of the founding members, and for years the parish, which celebrated Mass in German and EnglishMore likely in Latin only – but he wouldn’t know that., was a center for the German Catholic community in the area.

Many of the national parishes in Luzerne County that are historically attended by people and practice traditions from one ethnic background grew up in this manner, according to the Rev. Hugh McGroarty, senior priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pittston.

Fair enough. Then the article goes on to say:

The first immigrants to the area were mostly Irish, and they built Catholic parishes. However, when immigrants from other areas of Europe came, many lived in the same communities and wanted to worship with people who spoke their languages and shared their culture…

Are they saying that Irish = Catholic? That sets the tone for this:

So the Catholic Church gave many of these groups of immigrants national parishes, and made the parishes built by the Irish territorial so anyone in the area could attend.

—There’s no Irish church,— McGroarty said. —There was one church in the area, and so the Polish made their own. And the Slovaks came in, and so on. The other church, which they called Irish, was for everyone.—

The problem of course was that the area church was Irish – right Fr. McGroarty. You had to fit in or get out. They didn’t want the Poles, or Slovaks, or Ukrainians, or Italians. You wore green, spoke English, and worshiped St. Patrick like a good “Catholic” or you got out.

I like the way he implies that these other nationalities were “given” parishes while the Irish parish was the Catholic one. Does that mean that the Poles, etc. had a slightly less than Catholic parish, and the the only truly Catholic parish was the Irish one? Is that because Irish = universal?

What a bad retelling of history. These industrial and mining towns didn’t have homogeneous R.C. parishes. You either fit with the crowd in the Irish parish or you did not. The Poles wouldn’t give in, and wouldn’t turn their assets over the the local [Irish] R.C. bishop as demanded of them (no one was “given” a church) thus in part the genesis for the PNCC.

Later in the article Fr. McGroarty says:

Many parishes held on to their roots, but, McGroarty said, there aren’t nearly as many traditions and ethnic bonds as in the past.

—There isn’t that much,— he said. —The tradition is with the old people.—

I guess you ought to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day parade Father, and dump the corn beef and cabbage down the Susquehanna — it’s only for the old folks anyway. Tradition is only for the old? Kind of like the all that funny old Catholic stuff like devotions, the Traditional form of the Holy Mass, etc.? Sorry Father but those are all things the PNCC hasn’t had to rediscover (í  la Benedict XVI) because we retained them – because we listened to the people. The Church’s Tradition is universal, consistent, and is for all people.

Perspective, Political, ,

EU Politics in religious terms

I found the following story from the Economist to be interesting: The heretical Czechs. The pragmatic skeptics who will have the next European-Union presidency.

On a 2007 visit to talk over EU affairs, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the Czechs reminded her of modern-day Hussites—”followers of Jan Hus, who was burnt at the stake in 1415 for challenging the Roman Catholic Church. This was a shrewd observation, says Alexandr Vondra, a deputy prime minister. The Hussite movement was crushed amid bitter in-fighting, and the Czechs remained Catholic. But Hus remains a national hero, and his legacy helps to explain why Czech views of the EU differ from those of such neighbours as Germany or Slovakia. Mr Vondra suggests that Czechs think like —classic reformation countries—, such as the Netherlands or Sweden.

I actually enjoyed the way the author used religious imagery throughout this report on the E.U..

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

In memory – September 1, 1939

From John Guzlowski’s Lighting and Ashes blog: September 1, 1939

69 years ago on September 1. 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. Their blitzkrieg, their lightning war, came from the air and the sea and the sky. By Sept 28, Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, gave up. By October 7, the last Polish resistance inside Poland ended.

…

The world had not seen anything like it, and it was the prelude to a lot of things the world had never seen before: the Final Solution, Total War, the concentration camps, the atomic bomb, the fire bombing of civilian populations, and brutality on a level that most people still don’t want to think about almost 70 years later.

When the Germans attacked on that September 1, My dad was 19 and working on his uncle’s farm with his brother Roman. Their parents had died when the boys were young, and their uncle and aunt took them in and taught them how to farm, how to prepare the soil in the fall and plant the seeds in the spring. My mom was 17 and living with her parents and her sisters and brothers in a forest west of Lvov in eastern Poland.

The summer had been hot and dry, and both of my parents, like so many other Poles, were looking forward to the fall and the beginning of milder weather.

The war turned my parents’ lives upside down. Nothing they planned or anticipated could have prepared them for what happened.

By the end of the war, they were both slave laborers in Nazi Germany, their homes destroyed, their families dead or scattered, their country taken over by the Soviet Union.

Read the whole thing and view the video links. Remember the cost of war, think of the the sacrifice of Poland, the waste, the lessons learned, pray for the dead, and moreover pray for peace.

Almighty God, by whose grace we look for the day when nation shall not any more lift up sword against nation, and when men shall live without fear in security and peace, grant to us in this time of strife the will to labor for peace even while our sword is drawn to resist the foe. Let not the evil we oppose turn us from our purpose, to achieve unity and concord among the nations of the earth, to Thy honor and glory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — Prayer for Peace from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

88th Anniversary of the Miracle on the Vistula

From Wikipedia: Battle of Warsaw (1920)

The Battle of Warsaw (Russian: Варшáвское сражéние, Polish: Bitwa Warszawska; sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, Polish: Cud nad Wisłą) was the decisive battle of the Polish-Soviet War, which began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasting until the Treaty of Riga (1921).

Before the Polish victory at the Vistula, both the Bolsheviks and the majority of foreign experts considered Poland to be on the verge of defeat. The stunning, unexpected Polish victory crippled the Bolshevik forces. In the following months, several more Polish victories secured Poland’s independence and eastern borders.

Pod Twoją obronę uciekamy się" - 1920
Pod Twoją obronę uciekamy się - 1920 (Under Your Protection we find shelter - 1920)

August 15th was the turning point. Polish forces at Warsaw routed the Russian army. It is said that an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary above the Wisła was the inspiration for the victory by the Polish forces.

Everything Else, ,

Honoring Russ Pawlak

Honoring Russell Pawlak and the work he has lead – to restore and reclaim a part of Buffalo’s history. His story shows that determination, hard work, and a step-by-step approach can win more than just the day. From today’s Buffalo News: Restoration conductor hangs up his cap at Central Terminal – Russell Pawlak steps aside after 10 years as volunteer

Ten years ago, Central Terminal was an uninhabited and dilapidated relic in danger of the wrecking ball.

Today, the 17-story art deco former train station on the East Side is still a long way from full restoration, but it has become a popular site for community and offbeat artistic events.

The surprising transformation wouldn’t have happened without Russell Pawlak, the pitchman, marketer and, some people contend, visionary who grew up on Milburn Street, in the shadow of Central Terminal.

Now, after a decade of volunteer involvement, including the last eight as president of the Central Terminal Restoration Corp., Pawlak is hanging up his conductor’s cap…

Buffalo\'s Central Terminal

Everything Else, ,

Veterans program – recording oral histories

My alma mater, Canisius College, will host the New York State Veterans Oral History Program on Tuesday-Thursday May 6th, 7th, and 8th at its archives.

Former New York Governor George Pataki established the program on Veterans’ Day 2000 to preserve the story of New York’s veterans in their own words for future generations. At the time the Governor noted, “The recollections and experiences of New York’s veterans are a precious and irreplaceable resource…(the veterans’) history is our state’s history.”

War has played an important part in the lives of many alums. This project will offer the opportunity for veterans and civilians who worked in the “war effort” of any war -World War II, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as involvement in Kosovo or the Falkland Islands-to share their memories. Participants will receive a DVD of their oral history, which will be catalogued in the Canisius Archives, as well as the New York State Military Museum & Veterans Research Center.

Michael Russert, Military Historian, New York State Museum & Veterans Research Center will conduct the interviews.

To schedule an appointment or for more information please contact Kathleen DeLaney, Archives Coordinator, at 716-888-2530.

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