POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • FEBRUARY 2011 • OUR 100th ANNIVERSARY YEAR www.polamjournal.com 1 FEBRUARY 2011 • VOL. 100, NO. 2 $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 ALLURING (AND INSPIRING): 1911 • 2011 DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION AND CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE POLAND’S SPY — Page 7 IRELAND, POLAND, AND CITIZENSHIP • KF, ACPC AGREE TO TERMS ON NATIONAL POLISH CENTER GROSS PENS ANOTHER BOOK • WIN ONE OF THREE POLISH COOKBOOKS • IT’S CHRUŚCIKI TIME SZYK ARTWORK SHOWCASED IN CALIFORNIA • YOUTH LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 2011 NEWSMARK John Paul II to be Beatified Sheriff’s Comments at Ceremony to be held in Saint Peter’s Square, Divine Mercy Sunday, May 1 Center of Controversy by Robert Strybel said Kraków Archbishop Stanisław Dzi- WARSAW–Via the electronic media, wisz, the late Pope’s secretary and close TUSCON, Ariz. — Some want e-mails, blogs and text messages, news friend, in a message to Benedict XVI. him to resign. Others are joining that Pope Benedict XVI had signed his “Thank you, Holy Father or signing the the “Clarence Dupnik is my Hero” predecessor’s beatification document decree recognizing John Paul’s interces- page on Facebook. Whatever your spread like wildfire across Poland and sion in the miracle needed for beatifica- stance, Pima County Sheriff Clar- the country was overjoyed. Special tion.” ence Dupnik’s comments about the masses of thanksgiving were celebrated A medical commission confirmed political atmosphere in Arizona — in churches and cathedrals around the that French nun Marie Simon-Pierre had and subsequently throughout the country, and thousands gathered at ven- been inexplicably cured of Parkinson’s United States — have attracted at- ues associated with the late Pope John disease overnight after praying for the tention from the left and right. CLARENCE DUPNIK: Paul II, their nation’s favorite son. late Pope’s intercession. According to Hours after Rep. Gabrielle Gif- Outspoken sheriff has Nowhere was the joy greater than in the Vatican’s saint-making rules, one fords was shot during the Tucson fans and foes. sleepy, provincial Wadowice in the Ta- miracle is needed for beatification, the rampage that also left six dead, tra foothills, Karol Wojtyła’s hometown, penultimate stage leading to sainthood. Dupnik called Arizona “a mecca for prejudice and bigotry” where he had lived until he was 18 be- A second is required for canonization. and blasted “vitriol” in today’s political rhetoric. fore going to Kraków to study. Worship- No miracle is needed for the beatifica- The sheriff at the center of the shooting investigation ers crowded the local church, where he tion of a martyr for the faith such as then went after the state’s gun laws. had been baptized and served as an al- Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, the pro-Soli- His comments raised hackle on both sides of the politi- tarboy to express their gratitude for the darity priest beatified last summer. cal fence, bringing the debate into the national spotlight. current Pope’s decision. A common, understandably impa- Among those who think Dupnik, a Democrat, spoke out JOHN PAUL II. Considered by many to “I am overjoyed. I thank Divine Prov- tient Polish reaction to the announce- of line was his home-state senator, Republican Jon Kyl, for be one of the greatest Poles in history. idence for giving me a chance to live ment went along the lines of: “At long the remarks. “It was speculation,” Kyl said on CBS’ Face alongside someone destined to become a Franciszkańska 3 (3 Franciscan Street). last. This is what we have been waiting the Nation. (continued on page 4). saint.. He was a giant in spirit, heart and That is Kraków Archdiocese’s Episco- and praying for.” By the standards of intellect,” remarked octogenarian Euge- pal Palace, where Cardinal Wojtyła had the Catholic Church, whose wheels turn Moscow Blames Poles for Smolensk Air Disaster niusz Mróz, a Wadowice native and one lived and worked. During papal visits slowly but surely to avoid hasty errors, by Robert Strybel, PAJ Warsaw Correspondent of the late pope’s classmates. to his homeland he would appear in the the process can only be called fast-track WARSAW — Russian investigators probing last April’s In nearby Kraków, some 30 miles window to chat and joke with students beatification. Banners with the words air crash that killed the Polish head of state and the remain- away, hundreds of Poles, especially before turning in for the night. “Santo Subito” were unfurled by young ing 95 people on board have blamed the disaster on Polish university students and young married “I am happy that ‘Santo Subito’ Catholics in St. Peter’s Square during pilot error. The Polish crewman had ignored warnings not couples with children, clustered beneath (Italian for ‘sainthood at once’), which John Paul’s funeral in 2005, and acceler- to land due to bad weather in order not to upset the flight’s Poland’s best-known window at ulica people had requested is being fulfilled,” See “Fast-track Beatification,” page 4 main passenger, President Lech Kaczyński, who was run- ning late, the one-sided Russian report* claimed. It also sought to absolve the Russian side from any blame for the Mikulski Sets Record as Longest-Serving Female Senator tragedy. term January 5, 2011, becom- banes, a fellow Maryland ect through the city’s historic The antiquated Soviet-designed plane taking the top- ing the longest-serving fe- Democrat, with helping her. Fells Point neighborhood. level delegation to the 70th anniversary commemoration male senator in United States “Senator Paul Sarbanes First sworn in as a U.S. of the Katyń Forest Massacre had crashed while trying to history. not only helped me get very land in heavy fog just short of the runway of a disused mili- senator in 1987, Mikulski be- She served in the Senate good committee assignments, tary airport in Smolensk, Russia. None of the passengers or came the first female Demo- for more time than the previ- but showed me those invis- crew survived one the greatest tragedies in Polish history, crat to serve on the Senate ous longest-serving female ible channels and hallways of compared by some to another Katyń. Apart from Poland’s Appropriations Committee. senator, Maine’s Sen. Marga- power that no woman — no First Couple, the victims included senior government offi- She said because she was ret Chase Smith, who served Democratic woman — had cials, top military brass, lawmakers, bishops, war veterans first greeted with skepticism, and family members who had lost loved ones in Stalin’s 24 years. ever gone before,” Mikulski Reflecting on when she said. she worked twice as hard. Mi- cold-blooded 1940 murder of 22,000 Polish officers. kulski credits her acceptance At a special televised news conference in Moscow, the was one of two female sena- Mikulski is the daughter of tors, Mikulski says she was a Baltimore grocer and social partly to her plainspoken, head of the Russian aviation committee Tatyana Anodina wisecracking personality, announced the findings of the investigation, emphasizing never interested in being a ce- worker. She first gained rec- ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Mary- which she said was a pow- that the TU-154 jetliner had been technically sound when it lebrity because of her status. ognition in 1970 when she took off from Warsaw. That echoed Moscow’s initial reac- land Senator Barbara Mikul- She credited male colleagues successfully fought to block erful tool for breaking down tion to the April 10th disaster which insisted that the plane ski, was sworn in for a fifth such as then-Sen. Paul Sar- an interstate highway proj- barriers. had just undergone a major overhaul and was in excellent shape. Nienstedt Nixes Polish Church Appeal in Minneapolis Anodina then proceeded to read off a litany of alleged PHOTO: DAYLIFE.COM (continued on page 3) MINNEAPOLIS — On December Cross, St. Hedwig and the Polish com- 27, Archbishop of St. Paul and Min- munity are, in fact, preparing an appeal Poland, Three others, Urge EU Action neapolis John C. Nienstedt rejected an to the Vatican. Many have commented appeal for the Polish parishes of Holy on the fact that while the Archbishop has WARSAW —Poland’s Foreign Ministry says four EU Cross and St. Hedwig (Jadwiga) to con- shown a strong determination to elimi- governments have asked the bloc’s foreign policy chief to tinue to exist as separate parishes. The nate existing Polish national parishes take up the issue of recent attacks against Christians. appeal was signed by over 800 Polish through merger, he has left a German Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told The Associat- Americans, concerned Catholics, and national parish alone. Some believe that ed Press that the foreign ministers of Poland, Italy, France members of the two churches. this may be due to Archbishop Nienst- and Hungary have sent a joint letter to Catherine Ashton In his letter to Holy Cross parishio- edt’s German background. suggesting that the EU “look into” the recent “wave of at- ners, the Archbishop recognized Polish Others have been frustrated by a lack tacks on Christians.” Catholics’ attachment to their parish, ARCHBISHOP JOHN C. NIENSTEDT of meaningful consultation with the par- Bosacki refused to disclose further details. but stated that the continued existence rejected an appeal for Polish parishes. ishes involved and the laity. “I am sick A bomb attack on worshippers of Egypt’s Coptic Chris- of Holy Cross “is simply not in the best them that an appeal could be sent to the and tired of his (Nienstedt’s) blatant ar- tian minority on Christmas Day in Alexandria killed 21 and interests of the area.” He assured them Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, rogance,” said a caller to the PAJ office, left nearly 100 wounded.