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FRANKFORT PASTOR RETURNS TO POLAND FOR 17TH VISIT
By Mary T. Mancha, from "The Catholic Moment"

The Very Rev. Canon Gerald J. Borawski, as he is known in Eastern Europe, recently returned from his 17th trip to Poland, where Bishop Stanislaus Stefanek of the Diocese of Lomza in northeast Poland offered a blessing to his newest canon.

In March 2002, with the approval of Northcentral Indiana's Bishop William L. Higi, Bishop Stefanek bestowed upon Father Borawski, pastor of St. Mary Parish here, the honorary rank of "canon." Just below that of monsignor, historically a canon acted as an advisor to his bishop. In modern times, it is conferred as a tribute.

A requisite of the title is being able to prove a lineage connected with the Polish diocese.

Formally granted last March, the honor recalls his efforts to smuggle Catholic goods and money into Poland in 1968 and 1969, which at the time "was totally under the heel of communist Russia," as Father Borawski puts it.

He was a young student attending a Polish seminary near Detroit and was traveling to the University of Warsaw for summer courses. Much of what he brought into the country aided retired priests.

"I was willing to take the risk," he said. "In those days they wanted to punish the Church because the Church was the only moral force in society that would oppose what the communists were doing."

If discovered by the wrong people, his illegal action could have gotten him shot or, at best, landed him 10 years of hard labor.

"They would have loved to make an example of an American in those days," he said.

Father Borawski concelebrated Mass with Bishop Stefanek at the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel on Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Sitting in his rectory living room during a recent interview, the mid-day sun streaming over a hard-bound, two-inch thick, full color diocesan directory Bishop Stefanek gave him, Father Borawski said his summer trip was a matter of Church business. It was about becoming better acquainted with the Diocese of Lomza — which he already knows fairly well — and becoming better acquainted with its bishop.

"Most of the time when I go to Poland, it is where I go to stay because it's where my family came from. I probably have more relatives there than I have in the United States," Father Borawski said.

Although both his maternal and paternal grandparents met and married in Cleveland, Ohio, they all were born and baptized in the Diocese of Lomza. It was Father Borawski's paternal grandfather who taught him the language and who instilled in him a love of his heritage.

"Grandpa Borawski kept that alive in me. He would tell me stories; he would teach me the language," he said.

"I thought of my grandparents as brave people. My grandfather, when he came into this country, was actually coming to escape conscription into the Russian army. At that time there was no Poland. There was no Poland from 1794 to 1918. But Grandma and Grandpa always thought of themselves as Polish. … He didn't want to be forced to shoot his own relatives."

While in Poland for nearly two weeks, Father Borawski made a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to the miraculous image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, which for 620 years has been located at Jasna Gorna (Bright Mountain) in the city of Czestochowa in south central Poland, Father Borawski said. It was his 17th journey to the shrine, where the people's love of country and faith come together.

"I got up early one morning and caught a bus," he said. "It was a six-hour bus ride."

It is Poland's main Marian shrine and, therefore, considered the spiritual capital of the country. Legend says the icon was painted by St. Luke himself, Father Borawski said. Monks of the Order of St. Paul the Hermit have it in their monastery and unveil it twice daily to pilgrims, he explained.

"Some of these people have saved their whole lives to go one day there. I saw this old, old farmer holding up a little grandchild when they unveiled it," Father Borawski said. "He told her, 'Look long and hard, this is your mother who will watch over you.'"

On Aug. 18, Father Borawski celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at the Collegiate Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Myszyniec, Poland, where prior to Mass he was "seated" in his canonical place in the sanctuary.

He added, "I tell people, just continue to call me 'Father.'"

Father Borawski's R.C. parish of St. Mary Church

Saint Mary's Cathedral -- OUR MEETING PLACE

St. Thomas Aquinas Church

The Eparchy of St. Nicholas

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