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Polish Archbishop visits Buncrana 09.07.10

by Eamonn Mac Dermott, Inishowen Independent

BUNCRANA'S St. Mary’s Oratory was packed on Monday evening as the Archbishop Metropolitan of Bialystok, Edward Ozorowski, said a Mass for the local Polish community and followers of the Divine Mercy Movement.
The Archbishop was on a visit to Ireland to see two Polish priests currently working here. Fr Rafal Januszewski has been based in Buncrana since October 2008, while the other priest is based in Belfast. Buncrana Parish Priest Fr. John Walsh said the Archbishop was ‘very welcome’ to the area.
He said: “Archbishop Ozorowski brought with him a relic of the Blessed Michael Sopocko (1888-1975), who was the spiritual director of Saint Faustina the founder of the Divine Mercy Movement.
“That movement would have a lot of followers here in Buncrana and in Derry so the Mass was for them and for the Polish community here.

“Most of the Mass was in English and one reading was in Polish,” Fr. Walsh continued: “Archbishop Ozorowski knew Blessed Michael Sopocko personally as he was spiritual director at the seminary the Archbishop attended.”
Fr. Walsh said that the Archbishop’s father had been executed in a Nazi concentration camp shortly after he was born in 1941.
He added: “This was a great boost for the Polish community here in Buncrana and also for the followers of the Divine Mercy movement.”
Welcoming the visit Kasia Wojtach of the Polish community said it was a really important occasion for Poles.
She said: “This was a great occasion for the Polish community here as the Blessed Michael Sopocko is a really important figure and the Divine Mercy Movement is very big in Poland with a lot of followers.
“We had people coming for this Mass from Letterkenny and Derry and it was a great occasion for Poles.
“We may be far from home but the visit from the Archbishop and the fact that he brought the relic with him shows that we are certainly not forgotten.”
There are currently around 200 Polish nationals living in the Inishowen area.

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