FROM POLAND

The year of god’s servant cardinal August Hlond

In the hall of ‘Niedziela’, on 8 September this year, a symposium was organized, devoted to the person of cardinal August Hlond. It was mainly attended by residents of Częstochowa, who had made an act of entrustment themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary earlier at Jasna Góra.

The meeting in the hall of ‘Niedziela’ was honored with the presence by: cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio – the chairman of the Papal Council for Legal Texts, archbishop senior Damian Zimoń from Katowice, archbishop Wacław Depo, and also representatives of the religious orders, among the others: Fr. Leon Knabit – a Benedict from Tyniec, Pauline Fathers from Jasna Góra with Definitors of the Pauline Order Father Zachariasz Jabłoński and Father Piotr Polak. The chief editor of ‘Niedziela’ Fr. Inf. Ireneusz Skubiś noted that the renewal of the act of Entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which was made in Jasna Góra on 8 September 2013, is a station preceding the solemn entrustment of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by pope Francis, announced for the day of 13 October 2013.

During the symposium Fr. Prof. Stanisław Wilk SDB presented priestly and primate’s path of cardinal August Hlond in an interesting way. Fr. Prof. Paweł BortkiewiczTChr noted in his statement that the words of the primate Hlond:’When a victory comes, it will be a victory of blessed Mary the Virgin’ became a program of the primate Stefan Wyszyński and blessed John Paul II. During the symposium there was screening of a documentary film made by the TV Studio of ‘Niedziela’, with starring Father Jerzy Tomziński – a Pauline Father of Jasna Góra, a witness of the historical event of 8 September 1946, when cardinal August Hlond made an act of entrustment of the Polish Nation to the Immaculate Heart of Blessed Mary the Virgin. During the symposium there was also a promotion of a book by Czesław Ryszka entitled ‘The primate from Silesia. God’ Servant Cardinal August Hlond (1881 – 1948)’. The ceremony was finished with the concert of patriotic songs performed by Leopold Stawarz with the band ‘Fatamorgana’ from Zawiercie.

God’s servant cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
The state of the beatification process

The process was begun on 20 May 1989 in Warsaw by cardinal Józef Glemp, the primate of Poland. After 12 years of its course, in the diocese of Warsaw, it was finished on 6 May 2001. From the year 2003 in Rome there are works on historical documentation of life, activity and heroism of virtues of cardinal Wyszyński. The postulator of the process in Rome is Father Prof. Zbigniew Suchecki OFMConv, the vice-postulator in Warsaw is Father Gabriel Bartoszewski OFMCap.

A big achievement is carrying out a process, in the period of 27 March 2012 - 28 May 2013, about the alleged miraculous healing of a young person at the age of 19in 1989, suffering from metastatic thyroid cancer. The healing is permanent – this person, being 40 years old now –is in a very good physical and psychical condition. The acts were taken to the Congregation of Canonization Issues in Rome. According to provisions of canonization law, the miracle is being analyzed by the congregation after the announcement of the decree about the heroism of virtues. We can look at the course of the process with the hope for the future beatification.

Fr. Gabriel Bartoszewski OFMCap

• Zdzisław Pupa – a candidate of the Law and Justice party decisively won the complementary elections to the Senate in Podkarpacie. He gained 61 percent votes.

• Jarosław Gowin – resigned from the Civic Platform. He and Paweł Kowal and Przemysław Wipler are going to establish a new political party. The coalition has already got only one vote of the advantage in the parliament.

• In Warsaw from11 to 14 September there was a protest of labour unions. The culmination point was the starry march on Saturday. The unionists were protesting against the economic situation and the policy of the government.

• There are less and less Poles, as ‘Rzeczpospolita’ informed, 20 thousand less citizens were born in the first semester of this year, than they died. There has not been such a bad situation since the year 1945 – emphasizes the newspaper. Poland takes the 212th place in the world in terms of birth rate. 224 countries are classified.

• Sensational news. In survey carried out for TVN, in which the question was who would be the best prime minister at present – nearly every fifth surveyed person pointed out to Jarosław Kaczyński. In further plan there were Donald Tusk and Jerzy Buzek, after 13 percent of opinions.

• Poland exceeded the second safety threshold, that is, 55 percent of debt in relation to gross domestic product. The debt of the country is already 888 milliard zlotys.

• The Marian Sanctuary devastated on the hill of Chełmska Góra in Koszalin (the |West province). Various signs were made with a spray on the buildings there.

• This year Caritas Poland received 2 million 605 thousand 510 zlotys from tax-payers. This is by nearly a million zlotys more than last year. The means are designed for the purchase of rehabilitation equipment in the hire centre of Caritas in whole Poland.

• The Seym commission of education and territorial local government opted for the rejection of the parliamentary draft of novelization of the bill about education system, according to which the evaluation in religion could not be placed on the school certificate nor included in the evaluation average. The draft was prepared by MPs of the Democratic Left Alliance.

(AA)

"Niedziela" 38/2013

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl