Local polish community hosts memorial mass

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/04/2010 (5814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds of Winnipeggers gathered Sunday at a North End church to grieve and pay their respects to Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other prominent Poles who died in an April 10 plane crash.

Dozens of cars lined the streets outside of Holy Ghost Church on Selkirk Avenue for the special memorial mass. Following the service, Winnipeg police escorted a procession north of the city to the Polish Combatants Association’s World War II memorial at Holy Family Cemetery on Main Street.

Archbishop James Weisgerber noted during the mass that it was difficult to reconcile the work of God when dealing with tragedy.

“While this is a time for grief, it is not one of despair,” he said.

Officials from all three levels of government attended the memorial mass, including representatives of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said the mass was a moment for Manitobans to join with people around the world to recognize tragedy and loss.

“The Polish people show their resiliency and determination and show their desire and willingness to bounce back,” he said.

Those words struck a chord with West Kildonan resident Kystyna Leszczynski, who left Poland for Canada in the early 1970s after having her Polish citizenship taken away during Communist rule of the country.

“Words like resiliency and determination were very appropriate, they were the perfect words to describe our people,” she said after the mass, adding the recent tragedy will leave a little mark on the hearts of Polish people throughout the world.

“It will take awhile to get over this, but as with other things in our past we will fight through the hard times.”

Kaczynski, first lady Maria Kaczynski and other high-ranking Poles were on their way to recognize the 70th anniversary of the Katyn forest massacre when their plane crashed. More than 22,000 Polish soldier were killed by Russian police during the massacre.

Zofia DeWitt, president of the Manitoba division of the Canadian Polish Congress, called the plane crash an ironic and cruel twist of fate.

“For it to happen on the occasion of noting a previous atrocity that had been kept silent for so many years is a real cruel irony,” she said.

The Katyn forest massacre was something touched upon by most of the speakers during the memorial mass. It was something that Leszczynski hoped would carry forward, that more awareness of the 70-year-old tragedy would be raised.

"It is important to teach children about this past. I hope the new leader will continue what Lech Kaczynski has started."

DeWitt estimated that there are more than 50,000 people of Polish descent in Manitoba, with more than half of them having been born in Poland.

rob.brown@canstarnews.com