Special Prayers for the Pontiff
Easter has a special poignancy this year at a Polish Catholic church in Los Angeles, where parishioners are praying that this will not be the final Holy Week for their beloved but ailing pope from Poland.
“I hope Holy Father is going to hold on for a little while longer, especially through the Easter holiday,” said Larry Ryciak, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Bright Mount parish, a congregation of 1,500 families in the West Adams district, where the Mass is celebrated in Polish.
In many ways, John Paul II’s presence can be felt at the parish, which has long been a focal point of Polish pride and culture in Southern California.
In 1976, two years before he became pontiff, then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow celebrated Mass at the church. The throne where he sat is maintained in the church office with great reverence, adorned with John Paul’s papal coat of arms. Nearby, the pope’s portrait hangs in a place of honor.
In the sanctuary, Polish and papal flags flank the altar. Above the altar is a painting of an icon that has come to symbolize Polish faith and nationalism, the Black Madonna cradling the Christ child, known as Our Lady in Czestochowa. The parish is named after the Madonna’s sanctuary in Poland.
As priests and parishioners prepared for the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, their joy was tempered by reports from the Vatican that the pope’s slow recovery from a throat operation had not allowed him to actively participate in Holy Week observances in Rome.
In the church kitchen last week, Teresa Dudojc was among those kneading dough and mixing a dark poppy seed paste for loaves of poppy seed bread, a traditional Easter and Christmas treat.
As the aroma of loaves hot out of the oven wafted into the parish hall, Dudojc paused to think about Easter and the pope.
“Seeing him sick, that is sad,” she said, drying her hands with a towel. “But we keep hoping and praying that he’s getting stronger, that he will come back and he’ll be fine again. He’s not giving up on anything.” She quickly turned back to making bread. “You wouldn’t want to make that for everyday. It’s too much work,” she said, laughing.
At Our Lady of the Bright Mount, there is no suggestion that the pope should step down. Priests and parishioners are praying for his continued recuperation and leadership, even if he is hobbled by age and illness.
“His elderliness and sickness are the sign for the world and the hope of the whole world. Even by his silence, he told every one of us a lot,” said Father Bogdan Molenda, pastor of the parish. “He teaches us how to take the suffering, teaches us a sense of suffering. It is a very difficult subject to the world, which is engaged and organized for the young and for the people who are not suffering. Today a church needs this type of pope.”
Like other priests who have served the parish, Molenda, 46, came from Poland. He was ordained in 1983 in the Archdiocese of Poznan, about 185 miles west of Warsaw.
Molenda’s observations about his fellow Pole reflect the pope’s views. Even before his ordination to the priesthood, John Paul was attracted as a youth to the idea that hardship, doubt and suffering purged the soul so that it could be filled with divine knowledge. His reading of St. John of the Cross, the 16th century Spanish theologian and mystic, profoundly influenced Wojtyla’s spirituality of redemptive suffering. There is also the pope’s contention that a “father” cannot resign from his family.
In the aftermath of his two recent hospitalizations for breathing problems and the flu, the pope was back at the Vatican last week and appeared weak as he made brief appearances at a window, waving to pilgrims below.
This was the first time in 26 years that the pope has been unable to actively preside during busy Holy Week observances. His only scheduled appearance was to impart his traditional papal blessing today. But all the other tasks he normally would have performed were delegated to cardinals.
Founded in 1927 at a center close to downtown, Our Lady of the Bright Mount is one of many Roman Catholic congregations in Southern California that serve ethnic communities. In 1944, the Polish parish purchased a gracious mansion on West Adams Boulevard. In December 1956, it built the present church next door, reflecting the more modern architectural vogue of the time. The old mansion contains the parish office, gift shop and a venue for meetings.
For many parishioners, the parish is more than a place of worship. It’s the tie that binds -- to one another and to their homeland. The ashes of Polish martyrs fill a brass urn in a small chapel in the mansion.
Last week, Our Lady of the Bright Mount was filled to capacity with Palm Sunday worshippers. A long line of penitents -- men, women and youths -- cued up for confession as other parishioners listened to a homily in Polish. Some of the members -- immigrants or children and grandchildren of Polish immigrants -- are now suburbanites and drive from as far as Riverside and the Simi Valley.
“It’s a place to come and pray, see old friends and get together with people that you know for so many years,” said Ryciak, a member since 1962.
Robert Kruczek, 17, talked about his family’s personal ties to the pope.
“My grandpa used to be best friends with him in Poland,” said Robert, who commutes from Riverside with his brother, Philip, and their mother, Karen Wolowiec, to attend church. When they were younger, the Kruczek brothers attended Polish school on Sunday at the church to learn the language. In fact, their mother said they don’t know the Mass in English. Today, the school remains a central focus of the parish, with an enrollment of 123 students.
“My prayers are with him,” Wolowiec said of John Paul. “We hold the pope in reverence. He’s the first Polish pope.”
Still, the life of the Los Angeles church goes on. On Saturday, parishioners were to bring in baskets of Polish sausages, hard-boiled eggs, breads, butter and other food to be blessed before being served for breakfast this morning in their homes.
“Everybody’s getting ready for Holy Week and Easter Sunday for the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Wilczek said. “In my family, our youngster is preparing for her first Communion. It’s a special time for her this year.”
Many remember the pope’s 1976 visit to their parish. Others reflect on the Polish folk song that ecstatic and adoring Poles sang to the pope on his visits home: “One hundred years, one hundred years, may you live one hundred years.”
If the pope is not giving up, neither are parishioners. “It’s a great thing that the pope is back into his office from hospital. He seems to be in pretty good shape after what he went through lately,” said Janus Wilczek of La Crescenta.
Asked if he worried that John Paul would not live to see another Easter, Wilczek was philosophical. “It’s the nature of our lives. We’re born and go through our lives, and God has plans for every one of us, including the pope. We’re just praying he will serve us as long as possible, but it’s all in God’s hands.”
For Molenda, the Easter message offers a guiding light in the twilight years of John Paul’s ministry. “The holiday of Easter is a sign that brings with it happiness and hope, which will be beyond the boundary of today. Christ conquered death. We can look beyond.”