POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • SEPTEMBER 2011 • OUR 100th ANNIVERSARY YEAR www.polamjournal.com 1 SEPTEMBER 2011 • VOL. 100, NO. 9 $2.00 PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT BOSTON, NEW YORK NEW BOSTON, AT PAID PERIODICAL POSTAGE POLISH AMERICAN OFFICES AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY ESTABLISHED 1911 www.polamjournal.com JOURNAL PENDERECKI CONDUCTS 1911 • 2011 DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION AND CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE PENDERECKI — PAGE 8 POPE JOHN PAUL’S JEWISH MIRACLE • CONVENTION TAKES TIME TO CELEBRATE PADEREWSKI IS THERE ROOM FOR COMPROMISE? • STREET MUSICIANS, APOSTLES, AND A PENDULUM GRITTY WIN FOR BRAD KESELOWSKI • STADNICKI AND THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY NEWSMARK Love Story Continues Air-crash Report PHOTO: COURTESY OF POLISH INITIATIVE OF CHICAGO PAWLENTY STEPS DOWN. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential Triggers Military Shake-up nomination, hours after finishing third in the Iowa straw Smolensk Disaster Still Echoing poll. by Robert Strybel mediately after the crash, “I wish it would have been different. But obviously the WARSAW — The Smo- when Moscow’s first reaction pathway forward for me doesn’t really exist so we are go- lensk disaster of April 2010, had been to claim that the ing to end the campaign,” Pawlenty said on ABC’s “This the worst national tragedy in Soviet-designed Tupolev jet- Week” from Iowa shortly after disclosing his plans in a Poland’s post-war history, liner had been recently over- private conference call with supporters. continues to propel the Pol- hauled and was in A-1 shape. The low-key Midwesterner and two-term governor had ish body politic and generate In a similar vein, the Russian struggled to gain traction in a state he had said he must win controversy. It is also present investigators placed all the and never caught fire nationally with a Republican elector- in the campaign preceding blame for the disaster on the ate. parliamentary elections set Polish pilots and their supe- for October 9th. The crash riors, suggesting that Presi- HERITAGE MONTH PLANS UNDERWAY. This year in Smolensk, Russia, killed dent Kaczyński and Air Force marks the 30th Anniversary of the founding of Polish the president of Poland, his Commander Gen. Andrzej American Heritage Month, an event which began in Phila- wife and 94 others, including Błasik had pressured the pi- delphia and became a national celebration of Polish his- many members of the coun- lots into attempting to land in tory, culture, and pride. try’s political and military thick fog. The annual observance is sponsored by the Polish Amer- elite. The high-level delega- The recently released Pol- DEPORTATION ENDS. Janina, Brian, and Tony Wasilewski ican Congress, and headed by Michael Blichasz, president tion had been on its way to ish report on the Smolensk were reunited in Chicago, four years after the Polish wife and of group’s Eastern Pennsylvania district. commemorate the 60th an- disaster presented a far more mother was sent back to Poland. This year, Poles will mark the 100th Anniversary of Ma- niversary of Stalin’s 1940 balanced picture. “We are not rie Sklodowska Curie receiving the Nobel Prize in Chem- by Geraldine well-wishers, immigration Katyń Forest Massacre in placing blame on anyone — istry, and the 232nd Anniversary of the death of General Balut-Coleman advocates, a phalanx of tele- which 22,000 Polish officers that is something for prosecu- Casimir Pulaski, Father of the American Cavalry. CHICAGO — On August vision reporters and cameras had been murdered in cold tors to deal with. Our purpose Information about ways to celebrate Polish Ameri- 8, Janina Wasilewski, along and U.S. Representative, Luis blood. was to find the causes of the can Heritage Month can be obtained by visiting the Pol- with son, Brian, an American Gutierrez, Janina’s strongest The investigation carried disaster,” explained Interior ish American Heritage Month Committee’s site at Pol- citizen, holding a U.S. visa, congressional advocate and a out by Russian aviation of- Minister Jerzy Miller who ishAmericanHeritageMonth.com. a permanent resident’s green leader of immigration reform. ficials resulted in a report is- headed the Polish investiga- On the site you will find a list of “Things To Do Dur- card, and a waiver to return to Prior to the Wasilewski’s sued in Moscow at the start tion. ing Polish American Heritage Month,” the 2011 coloring the United States, arrived in tenacious family lawyer, of 2011 which sought to The 328-page Miller re- contest artwork for schools, and Heritage Month posters Chicago after being deported Royal Berg, presenting Jani- whitewash the Russian side port showed that the Smo- that can be downloaded and printed. Copies of the coloring in 2007. O’Hare International na’s deportation case to the from any responsibility for lensk airport was a decom- contest artwork can also be obtained by calling the Heri- Terminal was filled with over United States Supreme Court, the tragedy. That Russian missioned Russian military tage Month Committee, Mon.-Fri. between 9:00 a.m. and 100 family members, friends, See “Deportation,” page 4 tendency was apparent im- See “Smolensk,” page 4 5:00 p.m. at (215) 922-1700. CZECH REPUBLIC BACKS OUT. The Czech Republic Knights to Buy John Paul II Center has decided not to participate in the United States’ planned NEW HAVEN, Conn. — and using the story of his life as missile defense program out of frustration about its re- The Knights of Columbus have an inspiration, this shrine will be duced role in the project. agreed to purchase Washington, an opportunity to evangelize and In September 2009 President Obama scrapped the pre- D.C.’s struggling John Paul II spread the good news of the gos- vious administration’s plans before unveiling an updated Cultural Center from the Arch- pel through a New Evangeliza- program with an unspecified role for the Czech Republic. diocese of Detroit and will trans- tion,” he continued. Two months later, it offered the Czech Republic the pos- form it into a shrine and museum The 130,000-square-foot, 12- sibility of hosting a separate early warning system which honoring the life of Blessed John acre building near the National would help detect missile threats to NATO countries. Paul II. Shrine of the Immaculate Con- The Czech Defense Ministry said in a statement that the “It will be a place where our ception and the Catholic Univer- latest role envisaged for the country had become redundant children and grandchildren will sity of America has been virtu- because NATO had decided in 2010 to introduce an infor- learn about their great heritage ally shuttered for years, open by mation sharing system for all alliance members. as Catholics,” said Carl Ander- appointment only as church of- son, Supreme Knight. ficials tried to figure out what to Center will become a shrine and museum honoring SKULLS FOUND IN CHURCH CRYPT. Fifty human “True to John Paul II’s vision, do with it. Catholic faith and life of Pope John Paul II. skulls and several dozen skeletons have been discovered in a church crypt in the Baltic port city of Gdansk. The remains were found by a church employee who was re- Col. Gabreski Honored with Historical Marker moving rubble from the premises of the Repentant Sinners Chapel, the oldest part of St. Brigid’s Church, dating from OIL CITY, Pa. — Among the newest under his command, the mid-14th century. historical markers in the Commonwealth and became an air ace The skulls were found in an area where “fallen women” of Pennsylvania is one dedicated to World several times over. came to pray, say experts. War II ace pilot and military hero, Col. The marker was “The crypt, one of the biggest in the church, has not Francis “Gabby” Gabreski. The marker placed thanks to the been opened for a long time,” said priest Ludwik Kowal- was unveiled on June 25 and stands at 410 mutual cooperation of Seneca Street, one of the main thorough- the Pittsburgh Chap- ski. fares in the town. ter of the Kosciuszko “When we lit up the place and inserted a camera inside Francis Gabreski joined the U.S. Army Foundation (John using a broomstick, we were awed to see about fifty human GABRESKI Air Force and was at Pearl Harbor when Bartus, president) and skeletons and skulls.” the Japanese attacked. With America in the Polish National Alliance PNA Lodge When the body of St. Brigid was transported from Rome the fight, he persuaded his commanding 905 (Michael Fedorek, president). Pe- to Sweden in the 14th century, the funeral procession made officer to send him to England so that ter Obst of the Philadelphia KF Chapter a stop-over in Gdansk. he could learn modern air combat tactics filed the application with the Pennsyl- The coffin with the saint’s body remained in the chapel from the Polish fliers who were fighting in vania Histori cal and Museum Commis- for two weeks. The church priest would like to display St. the Battle of Britain. Later he was able to sion, and Giorgio Foods of Temple, Pa., Brigid’s relics in this place now. teach these tactics to the American pilots See “Gabreski,” page 4 2 www.polamjournal.com POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • SEPTEMBER 2011 • OUR 100th ANNIVERSARY YEAR ALMANAC Keeping Up on Things No Need to Panic, Historian Celebrates Says Tusk 95 Birthday Follow us on Facebook WARSAW — Poland’s politi- or visit us on the cal and economic stage displayed internet at: various reactions to the lowering of www.polamjournal.com America’s credit rating by the Stan- dard & Poors agency, which initial- SEPTEMBER • WRZESIEÑ ly sent financial markets plunging.