The parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka in New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood is celebrating 130 years of existence. Pastor Rev. Grzegorz Markulak CM told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Friday that the community endures and has for years cherished the same Catholic and patriotic values.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish traces its beginnings to 1896, when Poles settling in Brooklyn were building their own religious and educational institutions. According to the archives of the Diocese of Brooklyn, the community was served from St. Casimir’s Parish from 1896 to 1898, and in 1898 Rev. Leo Wysiecki became its pastor.
The diocesan directory gives 1898 as the founding date of the national parish for Polish faithful, but the parish itself recognizes 1896. The school connected with the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth also dates to that year, and its successor, St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy, is celebrating the jubilee together with the parish. The festivities include a Sunday banquet attended by more than 200 parishioners.
The current church at 607 Humboldt Street was consecrated on Nov. 13, 1904, so the anniversary marks the beginnings of the community, not the age of the building.
Markulak told PAP that the parish now has about 400 registered families, and about 1,200 people attend Sunday Masses in total. He explained that not all worshippers are registered with the parish because it is a personal parish rather than a territorial one. He acknowledged that Poles moving away affects the number of worshippers, but said some former residents keep property in the neighborhood, and families living outside Greenpoint also maintain their ties to the church.
“There are people whose parents or grandparents were baptized here, and who want their children and grandchildren to be baptized here, too, to receive first Communion or to get married here. It’s sentiment and family tradition,” the priest told PAP.
The parish remains a place for religious and patriotic observances, including Masses marking Flag Day, the anniversary of the Constitution of May 3, Independence Day and the anniversary of the martyrdom of Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko. According to the pastor, its influence extends to the Polish diaspora throughout New York. He recalled visits by Polish presidents Lech Wałęsa, Lech Kaczyński, Andrzej Duda and Karol Nawrocki, who attended a Mass marking the jubilee on Sept. 20.
“It shows that this parish still matters, since politicians from our homeland come to see us as well,” he told PAP.
The parish is home to the Maria Konopnicka Polish School, which is celebrating its 106th anniversary and educates about 50 children. Markulak noted that the decline in the number of students does not mean a loss of interest in Polish education, since more than 300 children attend the school at the parish of Saints Cyril and Methodius. That school has opened a preschool division, which also enrolls children from mixed families.
“Children are taught Poland’s traditions, customs, identity and history,” the pastor emphasized.
Preparations for the jubilee included publishing a book about the parish’s history. Markulak told PAP that working on it let him learn the scale of the first parishioners’ commitment: In 1908, 934 baptisms were performed here, compared with 60 to 70 a year now. He mentioned contributions of 50 cents, which at the time made up a substantial part of the donors’ earnings.
“There was great determination among people who wanted to have their own parish and their own church here, with Masses celebrated in Polish and sacraments administered,” he added. Before the current church was built, services were held in the school building, in a room that now serves as the gymnasium.
According to the pastor, the jubilee is above all an occasion to give thanks for generations of parishioners and their religious, Polish-community and patriotic work. He compared faith and everyday life to the two wings of an airplane, stressing that concern for material matters should go hand in hand with spiritual life. He sees changes mainly in access to information, since the internet now makes it easier to find a Polish community, but the parish’s mission remains the same.
“Maybe the world has changed a little, but we endure and continue to cherish the same values that existed 130 years ago,” Markulak concluded.
From New York, Andrzej Dobrowolski (PAP)
Source: Nowy Dziennik