By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO | Natalia Tomaszewicz
Patrycia, left, and Natalia Tomaszewicz pose with other young people who came from all over Poland and other nations to Czestochowa earlier this year for a one-day youth gathering. In the middle of the crowd behind them is Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, the creator of Radio Maryja and TV Trwam (Polish Catholic TV and radio).
Traveling with her sister, Tomaszewicz had a chance to brush up on Polish culture, language and religious traditions just before a big announcement during World Youth Day in Brazil: Pope Francis confirmed at the end of his July visit to Rio de Janeiro that he will convene the next WYD events in 2016 in Krakow, Poland’s second largest city and a historic center of Polish academic and cultural life.
The announcement was exciting news for many in South Florida’s Polish-American community, including Tomaszewicz, whose family are longtime members of Our Lady of Czestochowa Mission in Pompano Beach.
“The pope’s announcement of his coming to Krakow is a huge deal — Krakow is a 900-year-old city and I am hoping to be able to make it there. We are all very happy,” said Tomaszewicz, who watched WYD Rio with her parents on a Polish TV station via satellite system in Coral Springs.
She said many of the images and scenes from Rio were reminiscent of what she saw this summer during a smaller one-day youth pilgrimage in Poland at what is considered the third-largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world and home to the beloved icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The associated monastery is also the national shrine of Poland and the center of Polish Catholicism.
“It is kind of similar to the way the youth were in Rio, having a good time and celebrating the pope being there,” said Tomaszewicz, who is a junior studying criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. “I think when the pope comes to Poland will be a similar reaction (to Rio). Culture wise, yes, they are two different cultures but it will be yet a similar reaction.”
This image was posted on Facebook after the location of World Youth Day 2016 was announced by Pope Francis at the end of the closing Mass for WYD 2013 in Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Blessed Pope John Paul II, a native of Poland whose date of canonization should be announced soon, served as Archbishop Karol Wojtyla in Krakow before his election to pontiff; as pope he developed the concept of an international World Youth Day and placed the 1991 WYD events in Czestochowa.
In Miami Beach, Lady Blanka Rosenstiel, honorary consul to the Republic of Poland and founder of the Miami-based American Institute of Polish Culture for the promotion of the scientific and aesthetic endeavors of Americans of Polish descent, travels frequently to Poland.
“Needless to say we are all excited,” Rosenstiel said. “Pope Francis very much reminds us Poles of John Paul II: He has the same attitude of life, he is very humble, down to earth, great with the people and considers everybody a person deserving of all the best.”
Rosenstiel said Pope Francis can expect a robust, enthusiastic reception in Poland and in Krakow, a city known for fiercely preserving its cultural treasures and traditions, including the role of Catholic youth organizations in society.
“I personally believe the youth today need a man like this who can lead them and help them find themselves, to marry in a normal way, to be Catholic and to realize that money is not everything,” Rosenstiel said.
She believes that Poland has probably been overlooked by American tourists but WYD2016 will give them plenty of places to visit.
“I understand since it was under the communist system for many years after the war people have overlooked going there but I am urging everyone to go visit Poland,” Rosenstiel said.
There are estimated 10 million Americans of Polish descent nationwide, with about half a million in Florida, according to Rosenstiel. Polish-American and Polish-Canadian associations can be found throughout the state.
Jerzy Bogdziewicz, president of the financial council at Our Lady of Czestochowa Mission in Pompano Beach, and vice president of the Polish-American Congress in Florida, said Rio’s WYD will serve as a good blueprint for how Pope Francis might reinvigorate religiosity and religious understanding in Poland.
In recent years there had been ongoing efforts, he said, to encourage a papal visit to Poland.
“What is happening now after the collapse of communism in Europe is that people (in Poland) started to get involved with a European (secular) approach to religion,” Bogdziewicz said.
Poland also is enduring a kind of aggression toward established religious traditions and influence. Last year, Bogdziewicz helped gather some 350 local signatures of Polish-Americans in support of millions of Polish citizens who were fighting to preserve a national Catholic radio and TV media in Poland when it was in danger of government interference.
Bogdziewicz noted that WYD Rio showed the world once again how Catholics really are and what they believe at a time when official church membership is slipping in Latin America and Europe.
“There are still vibrant Catholics and young people in Poland, with a good percentage of young people, and (WYD Krakow) could leave a tremendous footprint in Europe,” he said. “There are three years to prepare so there is time; on Polish TV yesterday they were saying ‘we have to start preparing now,’ and combine that with the canonization of John Paul II and it will all come together and spark a light in all Europe.”
Father Klemens Dabrowski of the Society of Christ, pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa Mission who attended WYD 1993 in Denver, also sees similarities between Popes Francis and John Paul II in terms of their spontaneity and skills with an audience. (Our Lady of Czestochowa last year received a visit from Krakow’s Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s closest aide.)
“John Paul II was the actor and knew how to deal with the world. When he spoke every word was caught and when he went out of the prepared text every moment and every word was special,” Father Dabrowski said. “Pope Francis is very well known already, very touching for the Polish people and in some way reflecting the personality of John Paul II.”
