WARSAW, Poland, JUNE 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- At Benedict XVI’s request, Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Warsaw will preside here over the closing Mass of a National Eucharistic Congress and the beatification of three Polish priests.
Among the future blessed is a martyr, Father Ladislaw Findysz. He was born in Kroscienko Nizne, in the then Diocese of Przemysl of the Latins, on Dec. 13, 1907.
As a parish priest in Nowy Zmigrod, in the present-day Diocese of Rzeszow, he carried out his mission during World War II. In 1963, under the Communist regime, he was imprisoned because of his pastoral ministry.
In prison, he was humiliated and mistreated. His health broken, he was released from prison but died a few months later, on Aug. 21, 1964.
Cardinal Glemp, the primate of Poland, will also preside at the beatification of Father Bornislaw Markiewicz, who was born in Pruchnik, near Przemysl, on July 13, 1842.
He was a parish priest and seminary professor. He entered the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco in Turin, Italy.
Returning to Poland, he worked primarily in the formation of poor and orphaned young people.
He founded the men’s and women’s congregations of St. Michael the Archangel. The congregations were approved after his death, which occurred in Miejsce Piastowe on Jan. 29, 1912. The two congregations have belonged to the Salesian Family for years.
Formator of youth
The third future blessed is Father Ignatius Klopotowski. He was born on July 20, 1866, in Korzeniowka.
He was committed to charitable works. As a parish priest in Warsaw, he founded the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto. He worked in the formation of young people, the rehabilitation of troubled girls, and the care of orphans and the elderly. He died in Warsaw on Sept. 7, 1931.
Pilsudski Square in Warsaw will be the setting of the solemn Mass. Pope John Paul II presided at a Mass there during his first pastoral visit to Poland in 1979; at the time it was called Victory Square.
Benedict XVI has revived a papal tradition of not presiding at beatifications, a practice that was interrupted in 1971 by Pope Paul VI, when beatifying Maximilian Kolbe. For his part, Pope John Paul II presided over the beatification of 1,330 Servants of God.
