SHENANDOAH - Borough native Father Walter J. Ciszek, S.J., has been adopted as the patron of the "Year of Faith" by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown.
The Most Rev. John O. Barres, bishop of Allentown, made the announcement Sunday during the 28th annual Father Walter J. Ciszek Day Mass at St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church.
More than 300 people attended the afternoon Mass in the home church of Father Ciszek, whose cause for canonization is being investigated.
During his remarks as Mass began, Barres told the congregation, "As we stand up for our First Amendment rights as Americans and as Catholics, we stand up for our religious liberties following the footsteps of Father Walter Ciszek. We remember that the Diocese of Allentown has adopted Father Ciszek as our patron for the Year of Faith. As we study his life, as we study his spiritual teaching, let's follow Father Walter's example and allow the Holy Spirit to expand our minds, our hearts and our souls in the virtue of faith."
The Year of Faith in the Catholic Church was announced last year by Pope Benedict XVI to begin Oct. 11 and end Nov. 24, 2013, and is a "summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the One Savior of the world," the pope said.
Barres was the main celebrant and homilist at the Mass. Concelebrants were Monsignor Ronald C. Bocian, St. Casimir pastor; the Rev. Johnson Kochuparambul, assistant pastor; the Monsignor Anthony Muntone and the Rev. Thomas Sable, S.J., co-postulators for the cause of canonization of Father Ciszek; the Rev. Kevin Gallagher, pastor of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Roman Catholic Church, Mahanoy City, and the Rev. Michael Paris, parochial vicar at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church, Rockville, Md. Deacon Dennis Meyer of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church, Emmaus, read the Gospel and assisted. Cynthia Nowak was the lay reader.
During his homily, Barres explained the background for the Year of Faith and connected its purpose to the life of Father Ciszek.
"The Year of Faith is a very intimate and personal call to each of us ... to examine where we are and where we need to go. The more lively and real our Catholic faith is, the more we are open to God entering our lives at the deepest level. In coordination with our efforts to advance the cause of canonization in Rome, I have announced that Father Walter Ciszek is the patron of the Diocese of Allentown in our celebration of the Year of Faith."
Barres' words prompted a round of applause from the congregation.
"What was Father Walter's life in the end but the expression of a deep Catholic faith and missionary spirit that led him to God in Russia," Barres said "His witness is extremely relevant right now. He experienced in communist Russia gross violations of religious liberty. His biography, his sanctity and missionary spirit, his spiritual teaching is a reminder to all of us to defend and promote our precious gift of religious liberty - a gift that Americans can no longer take for granted."
At those words, Bishop Barres was again interrupted by a louder round of applause.
In his remarks at the closing of Mass, Bocian said that the chalice used by Barres at Mass had been used by Blessed Pope John Paul II, and the wooden crucifix held by the bishop and used in the final blessing was brought back from Russia by Father Ciszek.
After Mass, a reception was held in the church hall with food and refreshments. Books, prayer cards, videos and other items about Father Ciszek were available for purchase.
Born on Nov. 4, 1904, Father Ciszek, a Shenandoah native, was baptized in St. Casimir Church and attended the parish parochial school. He entered the seminary and was ordained in 1937 as the first American Byzantine Rite Jesuit priest in order to do missionary work in the former Soviet Union. Shortly after entering the Soviet Union under an assumed name in 1940, he was arrested in 1941 and accused of being a Vatican spy. After spending five years in the infamous Lubianka Gulag in Moscow, he was sent to Siberia for a time in hard labor. Throughout the ordeal, however, he continued to celebrate Mass and hear confessions of the faithful at considerable personal risk. Overall, he spent 23 years in the Soviet Union.
When he was finally released in 1963 in a prisoner exchange involving Soviet spies, he returned to St. Casimir in Shenandoah, to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving. Father Ciszek spent the last 21 years of his life working with American families, clergy and religious communities through counseling and retreat work. He wrote two books, "With God in Russia" and "He Leadeth Me," with co-author Rev. Daniel Flaherty, S.J.
He died Dec. 8, 1984, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and is buried at the Jesuit Novitiate in Wernersville. His cause for canonization began in the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Eparchy (Diocese) of Passaic and was later transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown. His cause has reached the stage that it is currently being investigated in the Vatican. Ciszek's title is "Servant of God."
The Father Walter J. Ciszek Prayer League is the official organization for the promotion of the cause of canonization of Ciszek. The prayer league works for the promotion of the cause through prayers and the living out of Ciszek's spiritual message of the acceptance of the will of God in vibrant faith.
The prayer league is donating $5,000 to the diocese to help defray the expenses associated with the promotion of Father Ciszek's cause for canonization, according to Bocian.