There's no shortage of pastoral work for Polish priests in Ireland, writes Kate Holmquist
Integration really begins when newcomers begin marrying and settling down in a country. In Dublin, the Polish Catholic chaplaincy has 200 couples in its pre-marriage course. Some are comprised of Poles who fell in love with other Poles after meeting in Dublin, while others are Polish-Irish unions. Some 20 weddings are already planned, adding to the diverse responsibilities of Fr Jaroslaw Maszkiewicz (who goes by the name Fr Jarek), chaplain to the Polish community in Ireland.
He describes his role as both priest and social worker, as he helps people to get the practical supports they need to integrate. Young people come to him with employment difficulties, unplanned pregnancies and illness, although the most common problem is isolation.
"Ireland is not much different from Poland, but it is different enough. Many young people working here experience loneliness and helplessness. It is then that they discover the necessity of a relationship with God and it strengthens their faith sometimes. Polish young people are more devout - more devoted - than Irish young people, but it is the same God and people have the same spiritual questions about how to have a relationship with God," he says.
Fr Jarek was appointed six months ago after the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, in cooperation with the Archbishop of Warsaw and Primate of Poland, Cardinal Josef Glemp, joined forces to fill the need for priests to serve the State's 160,000-strong Polish community.
"Archbishop Martin has given us great help and I'm impressed by this," says Fr Jarek. He has recently been joined by Fr Andrzej Krzesinski to work with a Polish parish so large that they will soon be moving from their base at St Michan's, Halston Street, near Arran Quay, to a larger church building in High Street.
There are about a dozen Polish priests currently in the State, four of them in Dublin, including Fr Andrew Pyka, a Salvatorian who left Poland in the 1970s and settled in Australia. Nearly four years ago he was appointed parish priest in Sallynoggin, Dún Laoghaire, which at the time was an Irish parish like any other. All that changed in May 2004.
"After EU accession, 5,000 Poles arrived in the first month alone. I was shocked, to put it mildly," he says. He found himself looking after the country's burgeoning Polish community single-handedly for the first two years, until the arrival of Fr Jarek.
During the early immigration boom, Fr Pyka conducted at least four Masses each Sunday between Sallynoggin and Halston Street, where there was standing room only for Masses in Polish. He also travelled regularly to Polish communities in counties Limerick, Clare, Galway and Mayo. He still travels to Arklow, Kilkenny, Athlone and New Ross to conduct Masses and, to his relief, will soon be joined in Sallynoggin by yet another priest arriving from Poland. About 5,000 Poles live in the Dún Laoghaire area.
The Polish community is so church-centred in its approach to surviving financially, emotionally and spiritually, that in order to meet their needs the Dublin Diocese plans to bring as many as seven more priests from Poland in the near future.
Polish priests have also come to work with the Divine Word Missionaries, the Dominicans and the Jesuits in all the major centres of population and at various levels within the Church.
Some have literally been passing through, but chose to stay when they saw the need for Polish-speaking priests. Fr Piotr Galus was returning from Brazil and had stopped to visit his brother, who was working on building sites in Cork, when he decided to stay and service the Polish community there.
In the 20th century, Ireland educated and exported priests around the world; now the traffic is in the opposite direction, with at least a dozen African priests also working in parishes around the country, as well as several from India, Lithuania and Latvia. But the arrival of Polish priests isn't about filling job vacancies, says Fr Gerry Kane, who coordinates pastoral care for foreign nationals and immigrants from within the EU in the Dublin Diocese.
The Polish Catholic Church is simply following the example of the Irish Catholic Church during Ireland's own periods of emigration when Irish priests followed their people to cities in the UK and the US, met them at airports and bus stations and went to building sites to gather them in.
Migrant Polish workers, like Irish emigrants in the last century, turn to the Catholic church "on the ground" for support, social services and contact points. The Polish community has representatives who meet every busload of Poles arriving in Dublin and welcome them into the church-based fold.
"It's very impressive, the speed with which they are getting their act together. For our part, we are well-equipped to support the Polish community due to our own experience of emigration," says Fr Kane. "Poland too has had the experience of poverty and oppression by a foreign power, so I think we understand each other."
More Poles are joining traditional, Irish indigenous parishes as they settle outside Dublin for "the long haul". They don't want to be part of Polish "ghettoes", so join English-speaking parishes in the hope of integrating into the community and making Irish friends, Fr Kane says. To help them integrate, parishes are being encouraged to provide printed Polish versions of weekly readings at Mass. These are available at www.virc.at.
See www.polish-chaplaincy.ie