Two Bishops and Four Priests Also Killed in Tragic Polish Plane Crash

By Deacon Keith Fournier
4/12/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The loss of two Bishops and four priests only adds to the great loss suffered by the Polish people. Let us make the words of St. Faustyna our own: "I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbors. All my neighbors' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart...." Let us do the same.

The loss of two Bishops and four priests only adds to the great loss suffered by the Polish people.

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SMOLENSK, Poland (Catholic Online) - On Saturday, April 9, 2010, tragedy struck the Polish people. Their beloved President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and numerous leaders of the Government, the military service and the leadership of the Church were killed in a tragic plane crash. It occurred over Smolensk, Russia, while the plane attempted to land during heavy fog.

Smolensk is not far from Katyn, the site where 20,000 Polish officers were massacred by troops of the former Soviet Union during World War II. In a twist of irony, the passengers were en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of that tragic event. Russian and Polish authorities were gathering to mourn the loss, remember the dead and pledge their solidarity to one another for the future.

The crash occurred on the weekend of the Second Sunday of Easter. The Sunday when, since the year 2000, the Universal Catholic Church commemorated the message given by the Lord to a Polish Saint, Sister Faustina Kowalska. The Lord told St. Faustina: "Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to divine mercy."

She wrote in her diary "I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbors. All my neighbors' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in order to relieve my neighbor."

Included among those who died were three Christian leaders, Army chaplain and Bishop Tadeusz Plozki, Orthodox Archbishop Miron Chodakowski and Evangelical military pastor Adam Pilsch. Pope Benedict called the faithful throughout the world to prayer and solidarity with the Polish people during their time of loss. In his message to the Polish Parliament he spoke of his "profound sorrow" and entrusted the dead to the "goodness of our merciful God."

The Catholic Bishop killed in the crash was Tadeusz Ploski of the Military ordinariate. He was 53 years old. Bishop Ploski was born in 1956 in Lidzbark Warminski in the northeast of Poland. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Warmia in 1982. He studied Canon Law at the Catholic University of Lublin and later obtained a Doctorate.

As a priest he served the Polish Bishops as a Canon lawyer. He became the editor of the Diocesan newspaper and Chaplain to the College of Education and the Academy of Agriculture and Technology in Olsztyn. In 1992 he was assigned to minister to the faithful in the Polish military. Even in the military he served as a correspondent for Vatican Radio and Catholic News Sources.

Fr. Ploski published 150 articles about Canon Law. He was a highly regarded expert on pastoral care and law in the military services. He was consecrated a Bishop by the Venerable Pope John Paul II for the Military Ordinariate.

He was not the only member of the clergy killed in the horrible crash. Orthodox Archbishop Miron Chodakowski, the Orthodox chaplain to the Polish military Brigadier General and Bishop of Hajn�wka was also killed. In addition, four priests, Father Jan Osi�ski, field chaplain; Father Bronisaw Gostomski, Father J�sef Joniec, Father Zdzisaw Kr�l and Father Andrzej Kwa�nik, all lost their lives.

Archbishop Chodakowski was 52 years old. He was born in 1957 in Bialystok. In 1978 he was tonsured and ordained a deacon. In 1979 he was ordained a priest and a hieromonk. He served as the governor of the monastery church. St. Humphrey the Great in Jableczna.

He became Rector of the Orthodox Theological Seminary. In 1984 he was appointed pastor of the parish church of Annunciation of Our Lady in Supra�l. In 1990, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and was governor of the monastery in Supra�l.

In 1998 he was consecrated as a Bishop of the Hajn�wka diocese. Also in 1998, the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski appointed bishop Miron as Brigadier General and Orthodox Ordinary of Polish Army. In 2003 he earned a doctorate in theology and in 2008 Bishop Miron was raised to the rank of archbishop.

The loss of two Bishops and four priests only adds to the great loss suffered by the Polish people. We invite our readers around the globe to remember the dead and pray for the Polish people during their time of great loss. Let us make the words of St. Faustyna our own: "I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbors. All my neighbors' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart...." Let us do the same.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 5 of 5 Comments

CROATS
3 years ago
Dear Poles around the world:

As you bid farewell to the last victims of the great tragedy which befall upon this generation, we extend our hearfelt condolences to all of you.

Also, please accept our most sincere apology that, shamefully, no one from our unfortunate present government showed up at the Kaczynskis' funeral. We're very ashamed of that! The reson is that the current persons in power, both president & pm, are not even Croats at heart and unfortunately shame the Croat nation on the interational scene in many ways.

However, great many of us were glued to the tv watching the funeral, while the candles were burning in our homes & we were absolutely one with you during the funeral mass.

We are sending our kindest reagrds to you with a wish that your next president will continue along the path of traditional Polish values keeping your Christian identity very strong.

May Our Lady of Marijy Bistrica, b. card. Aloysius Stepinac & other Croat martyrs and saints watch over all of you now and in the future!

Yours most sincerely,
CROATS
ELLY GUMERA
3 years ago
WE PRAY TO JESUS CHRIST:

GRANT THEM ETERNAL REST O LORD. AMEN.
INTO YOUR HANDS, WE COMMEND THEIR SPIRIT. AMEN.
MAY THEY ALL REST IN PEACE. AMEN.

Precious lives taken away, not to divide us, but to unite us all in prayer.
For the Kingdom of God is Heaven, is our permanent home - our brothers
and sisters have gone before us.

Let us not be in despair, but rather be hopeful and prayerful that they have
reached the Home that the Master has prepared for all of us. This we ask
in Jesus Name. Amen.
Ted of Windsor
3 years ago
Dear Friends,

Let us keep Poland with Polish Catholic Church in our prayers as the Polish People absorb the devastating blow, the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski [who died Saturday in a plane crash in Russia, was a one-time anti-communist activist who teamed up with his twin brother to take his country in a nationalist, conservative direction], his wife Maria, and many (90) leaders of the government, the military, and the Church. There is a terrible double-blow because this plane crash occurred in Russia, near Katyn, which is the site of the Soviet's massacres of more than 20,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia during World War II. The leaders of Poland were flying there to commemorate that EVENT.
Let us remember that in July 1943, a plane carrying General W. Sikorski plunged into the sea immediately after takeoff from Gibraltar, killing all on board, 15 leaders of the government except the pilot. The exact circumstances of his death has been disputed, and has given rise to a number of conspiracy theories surrounding the crash and his death. Was General Sikorski a victim of the Katyn massacre? Immediately after the crash, a Polish officer who had witnessed the event from the airstrip began sobbing quietly and repeating: "This is the end of Poland. This is the end of Poland." General Sikorski's death marked a turning point for Polish influence amongst the Anglo-American allies. No Pole after him would have much sway with the Allied politicians. Sikorski had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles and his death was a severe setback for the Polish cause. In some ways it was also convenient for the western Allies, who were finding the Polish question a stumbling-block to preserving good relations with Stalin. Stalin had also initiated secret negotiations with Germany reminding Stalin of his pact with Nazi Germany in 1939 and their joint attack on Poland. The Polish-Soviet crisis was beginning to threaten cooperation between the western Allies and the Soviet Union at a time when the Poles' importance to the western Allies, essential in the first years of the war, was beginning to fade with the entry into the conflict of the military and industrial giants, the Soviet Union and the United States. www.polishnews.com/index.php?...general-sikorski...
-Thanks to God, Poland always rises up from her times of crucifixion, stronger than ever. Let us pray that she also becomes more united and as a whole nation turns to Christ during this severe trial �which occurred on the eve of the Church's universal feast of Divine Mercy.
Luis von Wetzler
3 years ago
I mourn these bishops, one Catholic and the other one Orthodox as the four priests, is a tremendous lost for Poland, but I am sure that from this tragedy something good will emerge, these sad events sometimes bring a renewal, not only sadness.
Ama
3 years ago
May they all rest in the peace of the lord

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