Ten Year Celebration of Polish Chaplaincy in K&L: 06.08.26
Introduction:
It’s a great joy for all of us to gather in Cill Mhuire, Mary’s Church, here in Newbridge to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of Polish Chaplaincy in our Diocese. We fondly remember people like Bishop Jim Moriarty who twenty years ago discerned the need and drew up the agreement that led to the establishment of this important and significant chaplaincy in our diocese.
Time has moved on, twenty years later, our diocese and people are in a different space. It is opportune and timely to once again return to that definition and redefine it through the lens this time of 2026, and not 2006.
It’s also great that so many clergy (Fr’s Ruairí, Joe, Antony, Locky & Thaddeus; Dn’s Fergal, Jim, Sebastian & Michal) join with our Polish Chaplain Piotr and myself to mark this significant milestone. And more importantly it’s great that the great that so many from the Polish Community all across the Diocese with their Irish neighbours and friends are here to celebrate today.
The scripture readings on this Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time reminds us of the importance of sensitive correction. A sensitivity that leads to forgiveness, mercy and healing. The story of the Polish people from the horrors of the Second World War has been one of resilience and mercy; and it continues to be as Poland stands at the frontier of the four and half year war waging between Russia and Ukraine. You and your people know what it’s like to forgive, to take correction and so we pray …
- Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – you are the wellspring of mercy:
A Thiarna, déan trócaire
- Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – you are the way of Truth:
A Chríost, déan trócaire
- Bí linn i gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan Trócaire
Homily:
It’s in the gathering of our two’s and three’s we meet God. “For where two or three meet in my name. I shall be there with them”[1]. The brother in the gospel could be any of us!! The responsibility weighing on Ezekiel’s shoulders falls heavy on all of us, a responsibility to correct, to point out another direction. St. Paul is perhaps bluntest and the most cunning of all, reminding us: “love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour”[2].
Too many neighbours have been hurt; too many today remain un-reprimanded; too many brothers fall out and never reconcile. Pope Francis reminded us in Dublin at the World Meeting of Families eight years ago that “no family comes down from heaven perfectly formed”.
Family is very important, and a critical concept in the Polish tradition. We have come to celebrate the Twentieth Anniversary, what is known as the China Anniversary of Polish Chaplaincy here in Kildare & Leighlin diocese.
So to all of you I say: Szczesliwy Dwudziestej Rocznice! Happy Twentieth Anniversary!
Some of you came to the diocese, perhaps as young couples, searching for a new life. You settled here, married and raised a family. Your children have been brought up in Ireland. While summer holidays are with the grandparents in Poland, they are 100% Irish.
They play GAA with local clubs; they wear Man City, Arsenal or Chelsea tops, like their peers; they enjoy the Saw Doctors as much as the rest of us and they cheered on Katie Taylor last night. In other words, they are as much Irish as any and all of us are. That is the success of Polish integration, but you must never lose who you are, the traditions you bring and the customs that are yours.
Immediately coming to mind is the ‘Blessing of Food Baskets’ on Holy Saturday morning. I think I can safely say if the numbers who attend those Blessing Rituals was replicated on other Sundays we would be building or extending churches in Kildare and Leighlin to accommodate new ethnic congregations! Also, the blessing of bread at Christmas and the sending of blessed bread in greeting cards to family and friends. The beautiful Polish tradition of going to Confession a number of times before celebrating Marriage is laudable and one indeed that could be adopted by Irish couples. As parents you want to pass on to your children the values, traditions, and lived faith that you received from your parents and grandparents back in Poland. Our parishes are enriched by your presence and participation.
One of the themes in our upcoming National Synodal Assembly next month is that of ‘belonging’. While sports clubs, community activities and cultural involvement all help create that sense of ‘belonging’; for you the Polish people, the church, not in its building per se, but in the opportunity it creates for us to gather, to pray, to be as one, before our God and maker remains profound. It’s here we hear the gospel call on occasions to ‘go to your brother’ – when a brother sins, we should go and speak with him privately[3]. He doesn’t ask us to shout it from the roof top to tell everyone else about it, he says, go directly to your brother. Genuine love sometimes requires difficult conversations.
I commend the many spiritual exercises and activities that your chaplaincy through the seeds established by Thaddeus and rotavated and cultivated since by Piotr, supported by Lucja O’Neill, and many more at parish level include activities such as altar serving. Polish Christian names now populate Sacristy Register books. I commend the Catechesis for Children, it’s not enough to have young people serving, it’s important to form them.
I also think of the Domestic Church, the Living Rosary Groups, the Men of St. Joseph (who prayed the Rosary before our Mass), the Crusade for Human Liberation, the Friends of the Bridegroom, the Meetings with Miriam, the Youth Bible Drama Group (who offered the artistic-patriotic performance earlier); the Polish Scouts and the Schola Leaders. For particular mention the newly established Polish Chaplaincy Secretariat lead by Lucja and the Irish Polish Parish Co-ordinators. My hope is that every one of our eleven Pastoral Areas would in time have an Irish-Polish coordinator. You the Polish families can help the indigenous Irish to get to know our faith again, by welcoming Irish into your many formation groups. And there may be further groups yet to be established to meet other needs.
I wish all of you every blessing this day.
Presenting an Icon to Our Lady of Czestochowa on behalf of the diocese to you the Polish people. It will hang here in Cill Mhuire, in Mary’s Church, which will always remain the spiritual home of the Polish Chaplaincy.
[1] Mt. 18:20
[2] Rom. 13:10
[3] Mt.18:15
