Keeping Polish traditions alive

PASSAIC  Bishop Serratelli helped celebrate the 125th anniversary of St. Joseph Parish here — a community founded to serve Polish immigrants in Passaic in the late 19th century. It continues today as a vibrant faith community that still practices its deeply held religious and cultural traditions and celebrations as a “little Poland” in the city.

The Bishop was the main celebrant and homilist for the 1 p.m. Mass June 25 in St. Joseph Church to celebrate the parish’s 125 anniversary. Concelebrating the Mass were Father Stanley Lesniowski, pastor since 2005; Father Jakub Grzybowski, parochial vicar; Father Stefan Las, pastor of Holy Rosary Parish/Diocesan Shrine of St. John Paul II in Passaic; Father Janusz Gajda, the pastor’s friend from Poland; Father Laszlo Vas, pastor of St. Stephen Hungarian Catholic Parish, Passaic; and Father Kevin Corcoran, the Bishop’s priest secretary. Filling the church were parishioners, many dressed in native regional Polish garb. The Mass included prayers and hymns in Polish.

“It’s great that St. Joseph’s has survived through all these years,” said Father Lesniowski of the 500-family parish, which serves the faithful, who mostly live outside of Passaic and travel there from other towns in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. “I have gratitude to all the Polish-American people here, who have been active and keep that way. St. Joseph’s is a ‘little Poland.’ They continue the Polish cultural traditions and still worship in their native language, which is especially important for the older parishioners,” he said.

To maintain those Polish traditions, St. Joseph’s conducts religious education for the young people in both Polish and English; holds colorful outdoor processions for Easter and the Feast of Corpus Christi; and celebrates traditional midnight Mass for Christmas. Parishioners often dress in regional native garb and celebrate religious traditions by praying and singing hymns in their regional dialects, Father Lesniowski noted.

St. Joseph’s has long remained a spiritual home for many of Polish immigrants. In the late 1870s, Poles were among the surge of immigrants who came from Ellis Island to Passaic to work in the booming woolen and worsted mills. With no Polish priests or parishes, the Poles were hampered by their inability to speak English and felt cut off from their own religious and cultural traditions. They had to travel to New York City and Jersey City to attend Polish-language Masses, according St. Joseph’s history.

Aware of the need, Bishop Winand Wigger of the Newark Diocese sent Father Boleslaw Kwiatkowski, who would become St. Joseph’s first pastor, to St. Nicholas Parish, Passaic, to serve the Polish community. Some Polish families sent their children to St. Nicholas School, the history states,

On Sept. 7, 1892, Bishop Wigger named Jon Madarski and Francis Kriger trustees and a “Msgr. Maggi” as the president of the newly created St. Joseph Parish. Then-Father John Shepherd, St. Nicholas’ pastor, helped them select a frame building on Quincy Street for the church and first parish school, which would close in 1974, when it merged with other Catholic schools in Passaic at the time to become Passaic Catholic Regional School, which later also would close.

Later, trustees purchased a lot on Parker Avenue for $550. Construction of a new church started in 1893. Two years later, Bishop Wigger named Father Valentine Chlebowski as resident pastor. He bought a house at 41 Quincy St. that became the rectory until 1902. With the debt paid off, the parish bought nine parcels of land for the building of a new church for the growing parish, the history states.

In 1900, the current Romanesque church was built for $70,000. The original building on Quincy Street was expanded to serve as a school, staffed by the Felician Sisters.

St. Joseph’s continued to grow and saw the founding of many thriving religious, cultural and social organizations, including the Rosary Society, the Sodality of Mary and the Chopin Choir. Father Chlebowski built a new school on Monroe Street in 1911, the history states.

Then Father Julius Manteuffel started many athletic programs. His successor, Father Lawrence Szorc, constructed a new convent in 1939. Under Msgr. James Wrzeciono, the parish bought land for a parking lot, part of which was transformed into a mini-park graced by a statue of St. Joseph, to whom it was dedicated, the history states.

The next pastor, Father Anthony Dziurzynki, oversaw major renovation of the facilities, including repainting of the church and repairs to the church, convent and rectory. His successor, Father Ladislaus Flek, fulfilled his wishes of adding a kindergarten class to the school in 1969. In 1970, external repairs were made to the church and a ramp was built to make the church more accessible to the elderly and handicapped, according to St. Joseph’s history.

Parish pride over the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978 led to St. Joseph’s commissioning of a portrait of him and of St. Peter Basilica in Rome, which now Bishop Emeritus Rodimer blessed. Around the time of the parish’s centennial celebrations, the renovation and painting of the church interior were completed, along with the sealing of a time capsule in its cornerstone, which was replaced, because of weather damage, the history states.

Over the past 25 years, the church has undergone additional renovations and repainting. Recently, new air conditioning was installed in the church and repairs were completed to the roof of the church, while the parking lot was repaved, Father Lesniowski said.