Polish-American Parish Rooting for Late Pope’s Canonization

c. 2007 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Pope John Paul II is on the fast track to sainthood, thanks to churches such as St. Stanislaus in Cleveland. Located in this city’s Slavic Village neighborhood, St. Stanislaus already has one shrine containing a mitre worn by John Paul. The parish further honored the late pope’s memory […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

CLEVELAND _ Pope John Paul II is on the fast track to sainthood, thanks to churches such as St. Stanislaus in Cleveland.

Located in this city’s Slavic Village neighborhood, St. Stanislaus already has one shrine containing a mitre worn by John Paul. The parish further honored the late pope’s memory recently when it installed a specially commissioned icon “glorifying” him and St. Stanislaus in a new 22-foot-high shrine.


This will give parishioners even more opportunities to pray for the intercession of the favorite son of Poland, who may be one miracle away from canonization.

“The people of St. Stanislaus are praying for a miracle, and they’re expecting one,” said Bogdan Pieniak, the church administrator.

The process of being named a saint, a model of faithfulness who the church guarantees is in heaven, often takes decades or even centuries. But the cries of “santo subito” _ “sainthood now” _ that erupted at John Paul’s funeral two years ago resonated throughout the church.

Pope Benedict XVI waived the requirement that five years pass before a candidate’s cause can be considered. Earlier this month, the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Vatican City received the case of a French nun who says she was cured of Parkinson’s disease after praying for the intercession of John Paul.

If the church determines the healing was supernatural, Benedict can beatify John Paul, who would be called “blessed.” Verification of a second miracle is required for sainthood.

The beloved pontiff, who visited the Cleveland church in 1969 as then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, has always been a favorite at St. Stanislaus.

“John Paul II is a hero to the Polish people,” Pieniak said. “When he was elected pope, the Poles were delirious with joy.”


In November 2005, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow presented St. Stanislaus Church with an ornate mitre worn by the late pope. The liturgical head covering is encased in a small shrine with a kneeler in front of it.

Moreover, the church recently enthroned an icon of St. Stanislaus and John Paul that it commissioned from Polish artist Mado Kucharska to honor the patron saint of the parish and the late pontiff.

The almost 3-foot-by-2-foot icon depicts a peaceful John Paul wearing the mitre that is displayed in the St. Stanislaus shrine. The icon was installed in an elaborately carved 22-foot-high, 14-foot-wide shrine built of white oak by local craftsmen.

It’s a way of remembering John Paul’s visit here in 1969, and “it’s a way of continuing his presence among us in his sanctity,” said the Rev. Michael Surufka, pastor at St. Stanislaus.

Woodworkers Timothy Riffle and Charles Gliha, who have been working nearly all their waking hours the past six weeks to complete the shrine, say they have been helped along by “little miracles,” including a contractor who donated a week’s worth of time to help them with the installation.

“If you’re sensitive to spiritual things, you can’t help but feel a presence in that church,” Riffle said.


Worshippers at St. Stanislaus look forward to the new shrine.

“He certainly deserves it. He certainly was a great pope,” Pauline Kikta said after daily Mass last week.

Kikta said she often prays for the intercession of John Paul “to help me with whatever I’m going through at the moment.”

Praying to God with the help of John Paul gives her a sense of peace, she said.

Across the street at Cafe Krakow, a gift shop and meeting place run by the church, paintings, T-shirts and books with the late pope’s portrait are prominently displayed.

At one table, Grace Hryniewicz takes off her glasses and pauses before describing what John Paul means to her.

“It’s very hard to explain, but it’s better than my father. … An important figure to follow, an example,” she said in a combination of Polish and English with the help of an interpreter. “I love him. It’s a big, huge love, and I trust him.”


Hryniewicz said she prays regularly at the mitre shrine, sometimes to thank God and John Paul for their help in her life, sometimes to ask their advice.

“When I pray to him, he listens to me, and everything I pray,” she said of the late pope. Afterward, “I feel better. I’m sure he will help me.”

Advocates for the pope’s canonization have spoken of hundreds of miracles reportedly attributed to John Paul. Three weeks ago, Hryniewicz said, her mother and her three sisters came to the church to pray for the intercession of John Paul to help her uncle, who had had prostate cancer diagnosed. The cancer is gone, Hryniewicz said, and the family wonders whether it could be a miracle attributed to John Paul.

Miracles or not, many people at this parish already consider John Paul a saint.

“Most people know he’s a saint without the church declaring it,” Pieniak said.

(David Briggs writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

Editors: To obtain photos of workers preparing to install the shrine to the late Pope John Paul II go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

DSB/LF END BRIGGS

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