Dear Editor:
It’s become the Sunday routine at Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in Jersey City. January 6th marked the seventh month of demonstrations to protest the cancellation of the Polish Mass by the church’s pastor, Rev. Thomas Iwanowski.
Besides the weather, nothing’s changed since the protests began this summer. After months of prayers, editorials and letters to the Archdiocese of Newark, protestors are no closer to getting their Mass back.
I live just a few blocks from Our Lady of Czestochowa. Every Sunday, I watch the protestors saying the Rosary outside their church. It breaks my heart each time. Polish people unable to worship in a church founded by Polish immigrants; a church that despite the pastor’s efforts to conceal it (with the tag line, “Our Lady’s Church on the Waterfront”), still bears the name of the patroness of Poland.
Iwanowski has confused unity with uniformity. Forget embracing diversity and learning from cultural differences. And leave the old-fashioned Catholic traditions at the door. All members of his church must conform to a newly-imposed norm, worship in the same manner, in the same language.
Though the calendar says it’s 2002, Our Lady of Czestochowa is stuck in 1984, George Orwell’s 1984. Iwanowski reported that only 55 people came to the last Polish Mass, but that’s only one side of the story. Our Lady of Czestochowa remains a small parish. According to the church bulletin that I saw, 279 people attended the four English Masses the weekend of November 24 and 25. That’s an average of just 70 per service. Is it almost time to cancel one of these Masses?
All protestors want is one Mass a week in the church they love. At a time when attendance at Catholic churches everywhere could use a boost, it’s absurd to shut out longtime, dedicated parishioners. Maybe it’s time the archdiocese admitted a mistake was made before Polish parishioners freeze to death on the steps of their church.
Elizabeth Reddington