CORRESPONDENCE FROM FRANCE

AFTER A PRAYER CANCER DISAPPEARED

ROBERT WIT WYROSTKIEWICZ, Thiais , France

– I am only a little man. I recovered, and I was dying. Now I can only wait for fruits of the work of canonization tribunal members – said Francois Audelan.

A town near Paris, Thiais. It is here where on 20 September nuns ‘armed’ with leaflets about ‘father Popiełuszko’ – as they call the Polish martyr – were welcoming guests from Poland, arriving at the first canonization session of the chaplain of ‘Solidarity’.

For now… alleged

During the Holy Mass inaugurating the canonization session there was also healed Francois Audelain, who with his wife, clearly embarrassed with the commotion around him, was praying silently in the chapel of Annunciation nuns.

– When at 2 p.m. we are sworn, what witnesses say, will be a secret during the process, till a possible decision of the pope about the canonization – said Fr. Naumowicz, who is also a notary in this canonization process. Both the bishop of Creteil diocese Michel Santier present at the Holy Mass, and members of the canonization tribunal, seemed to be sure about the holiness of Fr. Jerzy. However, none of them, persistently like Mantua, repeated the word ‘alleged miracle’. – Unless we finish all investigations and scientific and medical verifications, we will speak about this event in this way – explained Fr. Prof. Naumowicz.

He liked tennis and hockey the most

Marek Popiełuszko arrived in Thiais especially from the United States. In a nave of the chapel I ‘eavesdropped’, when being asked by another journalist, he said that as a little boy he had spent his time with ‘uncle Jerzy’, playing games. I had to ask about it… - My picture of the blessed priest is different than the one which is usually presented in biographies. My relations with him were simply relations of a young boy with his uncle. I was only 14 when Fr. Jerzy was murdered. Earlier we had used to meet in a family atmosphere. At our home, Fr. Jerzy rested after his hard work in Warsaw. He liked playing TV games with me. At that time it was something modern. We used to play very popular TV games at that time, that is, tennis and hockey. Fr. Jerzy, as every young man, liked technical novelties and was interested in them.

The ceremony was slowly ending after the swearing of members of the canonization tribunal. I returned to a different town near Paris, Bourg-la-Reine and I was wondering what had happened not in Thiais but in me? I know for sure that Fr. Popiełuszko was there, was by every believer. By me, as well. And as healed Francis Audelain told me: ‘I can only wait for the fruits of the work of the canonization tribunal members’. So, I am waiting and praying to father Popiełuszko’.

AA

„Niedziela” 39/2014

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl