Precious lives of ninety six persons on board of Tu-154 number 101 were cruelly cut short exactly at 8:41 and 6 seconds on Saturday morning according to specialists working on data recorders of the presidential airplane...
Our President, professor Lech Kaczyński, his wife, army generals, bishops, priests, national bank governor, senators, members of parliament, representatives of major political parties, representatives of Katyń families, security detail officers, crew and other prominent figures in our society (you can find full list of all casualties here) found their death exactly in the same area that witnessed to the horror of mass murder of thousands Polish officers and intelligentsia seventy years earlier in Katyń forest, near Smolensk...
They were going to commemorate 70th anniversary of Katyń Massacre on that fatal day of April 10, 2010...
Instead, that ominous land claimed yet more lives of Polish elite...
Katyń has been particularly sensitive issue to my family...My Grandfather - the Father of my Mother - lieutenant Adam Jakubiec was one of those Polish officers shot in the back of their heads in the Spring of 1940 in Katyń forest...
I vividly remember his last letter to my Grandma and his beloved Wife - scribbled in pencil on a piece of paper...assuring her that everything is ok...obviously he was unable to write the truth...and then, long time after, the horrific truth of his sacrifice came finally out to the light...and hope of seeing him again was lost forever...
It took my Mum and Grandma almost 70 years to see him again, when they passed away last year...and the loving family, mercilessly torn apart by Soviet NKWD at the beginning of Second World War, was reunited again in heaven...and nothing will separate them anymore...
I was baptized in his honor, being given his name as my second baptismal name...
There are some pieces of information on my Grandpa on internet. Click on the following links, please:
Link 1
Link 2 (see the number 5022)
Link 3
Link 4 (my Mum's article on her Dad and Godfather is mentioned there)
When 'Katyn' movie was in the cinemas in 2007 and then available in stores on dvd, I bought a copy of the movie and brought home to present it to my Mum. She plainly refused to watch it and forbid us all to watch this movie in the house. If we wanted to watch it, then we had to go to the cinema...She was livid and passionate about this issue...Katyń and her Father...She could not bear to relive it again in moving pictures...
And now, one month from the fatal crash of our President and Polish elite on their way to commemorate Katyń massacre seventy years later, our bishop of Musoma, Rt. Rev. Michael Msonganzila called us all to his cathedral in Musoma to celebrate this morning a special Mass for the intention of all those who lost their lives one month ago...
We, as a Polish community in Diocese of Musoma - priests, sisters and lay missionaries - have been touched deeply by this gesture of solidarity, compassion and unity with us and Polish nation...we are truly grateful to him for his initiative.
So, precisely one month since the Smolensk air crash, we met this morning in the cathedral for the Holy Mass which was duly presided by himself, well attended by priests, religious, invited guests and local community of Musoma and the region, with some participants traveling from far to be with us today...Then, after the Mass, we had opportunity to meet and share meal together, prepared generously by the Musoma Cathedral community. We are very grateful for the hospitality and warm welcome there...
Obviously, my prayer intentions were not confined to those who lost their lives on April 10,2010. They went farther back in time than one month...my thoughts and prayers went to my Grandpa, to my family and to all who were executed seventy years ago in Katyń and elsewhere in Russia...
May they rest in peace...and we who live and make up the fabric of our modern Poland - may never forget and never fail to live up to the patriotism that is expected from descendants of those who shed their blood and died for our country...
Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy!...
To conclude the story of the day, just a few pictures from today's Holy Mass in the Musoma Cathedral:
A prayer before the Mass in the cathedral's sacristy
Bishop Michael Msonganzila's touching homily during the Holy Mass. He also conveyed his
personal condolences to acting President of the Republic of Poland, twin brother
of late President, to Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz and President of Polish Episcopal Conference.
Polish missionaries with local clergy with bishop presiding
surrounding the altar during Eucharistic Prayer
A solemn blessing concluding the liturgy
Right after the Holy Mass
A buffet in the John Paul II Garden at the cathedral
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