Members of the clergy pray during the beatification ceremony of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Mother Elzbieta Roza Czacka in the Church of Divine Providence in Warsaw. Photo: CNS. Letter from Poland
Sunday saw the beatification of two blesseds with very different, but equally holy, missions in the Church in Poland.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared the ‘Iron primate’, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Mother Elzbieta Róza Czacka blessed at Mass and a service September 12, at the Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw, attended by a large host of the country’s hierarchy and politicians.
This Polish Pope…would not be on Peter’s chair were it not for your faith which did not retreat before prison and suffering”
Cardinal Wyszynski’s name may ring a bell for some of our readers, being a close associate of St Pope John Paul II’s. Their work, both in their homeland and abroad, is widely credited with the weakening and eventual collapse of communism, and Cardinal Wyszynski was certainly not left unmarked by this struggle, spending a period of three years in prison and house arrest in the 1950s.
Material of legend
Bl. Wyszynski’s resistance to and struggle against both national socialism and communism would be the material of legend, were it not within living memory, and many tributes were paid to his legacy in the build-up to the beatification.
Speaking ahead of the beatification, primate emeritus of Poland, Archbishop Henryk Muszynski told of the role Bl. Wyszynski played in his own vocation, and how his example of the Christian life lived amid difficulty and persecution was a source of inspiration to his fellow seminarians.
“Already in the seminary – and these were the times of the golden age of Stalinism – we had a double point of reference: the martyrs of World War II and the priest Primate Wyszynski. It was the time of his imprisonment, we looked at him with admiration, but on the other hand, we were aware that what was happening was largely due to him,” Archbishop Muszynski said, continuing, “his uncompromising attitude, devotion to God and the Church, was something that not only influenced our imaginations, but was very important for our priestly formation and for our spiritual attitude”.
Cardinal Semeraro echoed the place Bl. Wyszynski occupied in the Polish imagination in his homily during the beatification Mass, recalling “an exceptional and prophetic event” that took place during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
“Blessed Stefan picked up from the ground a piece of a partially burnt sheet of paper that had flown there from the burning capital, wrapped in fire; on it, he read these words: ‘You will love’,” Cardinal Semeraro said, continuing “Wyszynski, deeply moved by them, took the piece of paper to the chapel, showed it to the sisters, and said: “This is the holiest appeal of fighting Warsaw to us and the entire world. An appeal and a testament: You will love.
“He lived his ministry as pastor and bishop in response to this appeal and testament, first in Lublin and then in Gniezno and Warsaw, as he faced the problems that his Nation had to endure in the years following World War II.”
In a letter to his compatriots a few days after his election to the See of Peter, St John Paul II wrote of Bl. Wyszynski, “This Polish Pope…would not be on Peter’s chair were it not for your faith which did not retreat before prison and suffering. Were it not for your heroic hope, your unlimited trust in the Mother of the Church!”
Weekend’s blesseds
Providence should have it that the first of the weekend’s blesseds met the second in the Polish village of Laski in 1926. Then a young priest, Bl. Wyszynski was “edified by the faith and perseverance of this woman who, moved by God’s love, was completely devoted to God and her neighbour,” Cardinal Semeraro said of Mother Czacka.
“Struck by blindness at the age of twenty-two, she decided to devote her life to serving the blind, who at that time could not count on help or the opportunity to get an education in the Polish territories,” Cardinal Semeraro said.
“With this aim, she founded the Society for the Care of the Blind and the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross. She opened schools and organised workshops, adapted the Braille alphabet to the Polish language, and developed spelling abbreviations.
“Through her extraordinary diligence and commitment, Blessed Elzbieta Róza shows us that there are no obstacles for those who want to love God and love as he does.”
Sr Elzbieta, who as a young girl lost her sight, devoted her whole life to assisting the blind”
Their meeting in 1926 led to “precious cooperation”, the blesseds engaging in the “frank sharing of intentions and plans”.
On May 19, 1961, Cardinal Wyszynski remarkably presided over Mother Czacka’s funeral, saying of her in his homily that she “was a person who constantly stood before the face of her Good Lord; a person who knew that God is Love, above all – love! A person who steadfastly drew from the fathomless source of God’s love! That is why she was able to share and nourish so many people around her with love”.
The beatification ceremony took place at the same time as the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, Hungary, which was celebrated by Pope Francis.
Ceremony
In his Angelus address after the Mass, Pope Francis drew attention to the ceremony in Warsaw, saying, “Today in Warsaw, not far from here, two individuals who bore witness to the Gospel are being beatified: Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Elzbieta Czacka, foundress of the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross.
“Both were familiar with the Cross first-hand. Cardinal Wyszynski, the Primate of Poland, who was arrested and imprisoned, was always a courageous pastor according to the heart of Christ and a herald of freedom and human dignity.”
“Sr Elzbieta, who as a young girl lost her sight, devoted her whole life to assisting the blind. May the example of these new blesseds encourage us to transform darkness into light with the power of love.”