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POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • FEBRUARY 2012 www.polamjournal.com 1 FEBRUARY 2012 • VOL. 101, NO. 2 $2.00 PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT BOSTON, NEW YORk NEW BOSTON, AT PAID PERIODICAL POSTAGE POLISH AMERICAN OFFICES AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY JOURNALESTABLISHED 1911 www.polamjournal.com TŁusTY CZWaRTeK and OTheR PRe-LenTen DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION AND CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE CeLeBRaTiOns. PAGE 16 WhAt ABoUt PoLANd, Mr. sChUMEr? • WhY PoLANd IN 2012? • BIshoP soBIEChoWsKI to LEAd EAstErN dIoCEsE MILK soUP, BABCIA’s CoMFort Food • ALLIANCE CoLLEGE ALUMNI to CELEBrAtE • thE CoNCEPt oF PAN-sLAVIsM CUrIEs’ FIrst sCIENtIFIC BrEAKthroUGh • sUPrIsEs For PoLANd At thE osCArs? • thE ChICAGo GrABoWsKIs neWsMaRK College President sorry for his “Ill- Katyn Continues to Haunt Poles KisZCZaK geTs susPended senTenCe. A Polish “Suicide” Attempt court handed down a two-year suspended prison term to a Chosen remarks” total Justice sought for Victims communist-era interior minister for his role in implement- Rattles Polish PHOTO: RICHARD POREMSKI ing martial law in Poland in 1981. NEWS OF INSULT MAKES ITS Political Scene The verdict is the latest effort by democratic Poland to WAY TO U.S. HOUSE FLOOR hold communist-era offi cials accountable for abuses dur- MILITARY CRIME, SMOLENSK ing their rule. “NOT ENOUGH” SAYS KOSCIUSZKO DISASTER IN THE BACKGROUND? The Warsaw Provincial Court found retired Gen. Cz- FOUNDATION PRESIDENT eslaw Kiszczak guilty on charges of membership in an by Robert Strybel armed criminal group that illegally declared the clamp- The president of Ohio WARSAW–The appar- down, aimed at crushing the Solidarity freedom movement, State University told the Pol- ent suicide attempt of a and violated the freedom of many Poles. The 86-year-old ish American Congress he senior Polish military pros- Kiszczak was absent from court. apologizes for “ill-chosen ecutor not only shocked the Former president and Solidarity founder, Lech Walesa, remarks” he made during journalists who were ear- reacted by saying that “full justice is not possible,” and that a question-and-answer pe- witnesses to the main point of such trials is “not to punish, but to draw riod that followed one of his the event, conclusions for the future.” speeches. it has also “It is important that the matter was closed and we can President E. Gordon Gee shaken up move on,” said the 1983 Nobel Peace Laureate. said he im- P o l a n d ’ s “kATYŃ: UNFINISHED INQUIRY” HELD ON CAPITOL The court also ruled that the then First Secretary of the mediately ruling es- HILL. Among the many academics, attorneys, historians, Communist Party, Stanislaw Kania, 84, was innocent. recognized t a b l i s h - Polonia leaders, Senators and Congressmen, and Polish he made a PRZYBYŁ ment, and Embassy diplomat, who all attend the Inquiry was John sT. sTePhen sTOned again. Metuchen Bishop Paul gaffe af- an investigation into the in- Lenczowski, president of the Institute of World Politics. He Bootkoski issued a decree December 30 suppressing an- ter he used cident may turn out to have is shown above being interviewed by Marcin Firlej, Foreign other Polonian parish, St. Stephen’s Parish in Perth Am- the Polish far-reaching political impli- News Correspondent for Poland’s Telewizja Polska. The boy, N.J., effective July 1, 2012. The decree simultaneous- Army as an cations. Inquiry took place in the Rayburn Congressional Office ly suppresses Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima Church, example of Colonel Mikołaj Przybył, Building in September of last year. the Portuguese parish in the city, and St. Mary’s Church, disorgani- who heads the Military one of the two territorial parishes in Perth Amboy and the GEE. In light of zation. Prosecutor’s Offi ce in the by Richard Poremski to this day the innocent vic- de facto Irish parish there. The three will be merged into a publicity, his P o l i s h western city of Poznań, had WASHINGTON, D.C. tims still cry out for justice, canonically new parish, whose name has yet to be decided, “sorry” may be Army vet- called a news conference — Seventy-one years have both legal and moral, that probably under the continuing administration of Polish Re- an understate- erans who to reply to accusations that now passed since the infa- has been denied to them - it demptorists. ment. belong to his offi ce had illegally pres- mous 1940 murdering of being delayed or blocked for St. Stephen’s was established in 1892. The Polish the Pol- sured phone companies into over 25,000 Pol- a variety of American bishop previously suppressed Holy Family Par- ish American Congress did passing on mobile phone ish Army offi cers, CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL egregious geo- ish in Carteret, another Polish parish, merging it with two not consider President Gee and text-message data. That including the elite INVESTIGATION INTO THE political and others under the name “Divine Mercy Parish.” as being a bigot but sim- concerned journalists sus- and leadership of SMOLEŃSK CRASH. PAGE 3 still-guarded The Diocesan Chancellor’s Annual Goal Statement in- ply “uneducated.” They felt pected of leaking classifi ed Poland’s society, in a geno- reasons. The Katyń - Unfi n- cludes a tasking to develop a paper on “a canonical and he should leave his desk in information from Russian cide perpetrated by Soviet ished Inquiry convened here pastoral resource guide for parishes in transition from per- OSU’s presidential suite and prosecutors to their Pol- Russia in the Katyń Forest on September 15, 2011 in the sonal/national parishes to territorial parishes.” spend the coming Spring se- See “Prosecutor,” p. 3 and at other locations. And See “Inquiry,” p. 3 mester in one of his college’s COMing TO The siLVeR sCReen. A fi lm is planned on classrooms and try to learn the role of the United States’ Kosciusko Squadron pilots a bit more about world and Genealogical Komorowski Visits Washington, who risked their lives during the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet military history. War. The squadron leader, Merian Caldwell Cooper, ar- The Anti-Bigotry Com- societies to Meet Discusses Visa Waiver Program rived in Poland in 1919 with a Herbert Hoover mission of mittee carried their message WASHINGTON, D.C. — for VWP participation a low to him. After hearing from in Utah in April humanitarian assistance for war-torn Europe. With seven Poland’s President Bronislaw overstay rate — set at less the committee as well as the American volunteers, he joined the elite Polish squadron CHICAGO — The Polish Komorowski came to Wash- than three percent of foreign PAC’s Public Relations Vice named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Cooper escaped after Genealogical Society of ington on Jan. 10 to meet with nationals who remain in the President Susan Lotarski in spending nine months as a soviet POW after his plane was America announces its Annual U.S. Senator Mark Kirk and United States after their visa Washington, D.C., President shot down. For his valor, he was awarded the highest Pol- Conference 2012 will be held Mike Quigley of the House expires. Current practice uses Gee promptly issued his ish military medal, the Virtuti Militari by Marshal Pilsud- in conjunction with United of Representatives to discuss the visa refusal rate. Under ski, Polish commander-in-chief. statement. Polish Genealogical Societies The Anti-Bigotry Com- Poland’s inclusion in the US VWP citizens of 36 foreign The idea for the fi lm came from The Foundation to Illu- (UPGS) in Salt Lake City, Visa Waiver Program (VWP). countries can travel to the minate America’s Heroes, which described Cooper an “an mittee’s letter to him was also Utah, April 20-23, 2012. intended to be an educational The Polish president sup- United States for up to 90 outstanding American whose story can inspire present and The keynote speaker will be ports the VWP initiative. U.S. days without a visa. future generations of Americans.” lesson about the Polish mili- Dr. Barbara Berska, Deputy tary. President Barack Obama an- Also discussed were allied Cooper’s great grandfather fought alongside Kazimierz General Director of State nounced his support for its relations of the two countries Pulaski in the American Revolution. Cooper was a found- Alex Storozynski, presi- Archives in Poland. dent of the Kosciuszko Foun- legislation during his visit to with particular emphasis on ing board member of Pan American Airways, an adventur- The Conference of Pol- dation, said Gee must be rep- Poland and again during Ko- cooperation in the ISAF mis- er, a fi lm director, a screenwriter, and a producer of fi lms, ish Genealogical Societies is rimanded for the slur. morowski’s earlier visit to the sion. the most famous of which was King Kong. He died of can- hosted by the Polonica Amer- United States. The trans-Atlantic trip cer at the age of eighty in 1973. He called on OSU Chair- icana Research Institute, the In March 2011 Senator fi rst included a stop in Da- The Foundation is seeking donations to fund the fi lm. It man Leslie H. Wexner to Polish Genealogical Society Kirk, Congressmen Quigley vos, Switzerland, where Ko- is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) public charity. Write or call 1616 “publicly admonish Univer- of America, the Polish Gene- and Barbara Lipinski and morowski attended an eco- Anderson Road, McLean, VA 22102; (334) 718-9501. sity President Gordon Gee for his unacceptable comment.” alogical Society of California three other congressmen sent nomic forum. and the Polish Genealogical a bill changing the VWP cri- Komorowski will return TWO neW aiRPORTs TO OPen in POLand. A former Storoszynski said Gee’s Society of Michigan. teria to the Senate and House.