Can we take a minute

  • Thread starter Thread starter Liberanosamalo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thank you most kindly. Please remember in your prayers those who died, their families, their orphaned country, all those here who have a blood or other tie with Poland. It is a long Polish tradition that if you declare yourself for Poland, then you are one of us, nothing matters more.

President Kaczyński was a great man and a great president. Vilified and ridiculed by the press for standing for Catholic values, far was he from being a stiff or self-important or boring man. He had a sense of humour and smile. Similarly being affixed with a plaque of closed-mindedness for his Catholic views, he was an academic professor with a higher doctorate, though never did he show any ivory tower distance. He was a patriot and if any place can be said to be good for to die for anyone, Katyń was that place for him. He was a patriot in the true sense of the word, never giving in to vain displays, always keeping Poland in his heart and showing his feelings with natural and, let’s say this, regal dignity. As a twist of fate, he was descended from the very first Polish kings. As I am writing this, his coffin is travelling the streets of Warsaw.

Other victims include his wife Maria of whom a political enemy said she was the best thing in this presidency. A true lady, she lived up to the task with dignity and natural charm. Ryszard Kaczorowski was the last of the Exiled Presidents, keeping unbroken and fully constitutional succession under the 1935 constitution under which in times of turbulence a president was entitled to appoint his successor when going out. This was done until 1990, when President Kaczorowski passed the insignia of the office to President Wałęsa. The last defiant president of pre-WW2 Poland, officiating from 1989 to 1990, died where 20,000 of our officers, public servants, doctors, lawyers, politicians where shot in the back of their heads by Soviets. There truly was no place more worthy of claiming him.

Others were the Chief of Staff (Gen. Gągor), leaders of all our branches of service, as well as the operational commander and the military commander of the capital city. Gen. Bishop Płoski (Catholic) and Gen. Archbishop Chodakowski (Orthodox) also gave their lives, together with several military chaplains or chaplains of the Katyń families. Almost all of the closest cooperators of the President died, as did members of the Sejm (the lower house) and the Senate, the Civil Rights Ombudsman, the President of the Institute of National Remembrance (how fitting), Chief of the Office of National Security, President of the National Bank of Poland, Chairman of the Council for Financial Policy, a left-wing presidential candidate currently serving as vice-chairman of the Sejm, a co-founder of the Solidarity movement, the head of the bar, leaders of combatant organisations, a famous actor who frequently played the most eminent pre-WW2 leader Marshal Piłsudski, members of families of murdered officers and others, a translator, seven members of the crew from the elite of the elite of the Air Force.
 
May Almighty God have mercy on all who died in this crash, and grant comfort to all who are bereaved by it.

Such a terrible tragedy.
 
My thoughts are with those who are suffering from this tragedy.
 
I just returned from the 6:00 p.m. Mass at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Moscow, the “Polish Church.” To get there we walked by the Polish Embassy. Chevalier, I hope that it will be a consolation for you to know how many bouquets of flowers have been left by Russians at the Polish Embassy 's gate. The Russian media were also there, and at the church where a beautiful arrangement of candles and the Polish flag has already been set up by the crucifix in the narthex. You have my prayers for the souls of those who were on that plane, and for the people of Poland.
I don’t wish to single anyone out and I am equally thankful to everyone, as I trust Poland is as a whole, but I would like to say a special thank you to our Russian brothers, you know why and no further words are needed.

And for all friends of Poland out there:

facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=199492&id=605880947&ref=mf

Yes, this does contain my name and makes me identifiable, but there is no other way in such little time I now have.
 
Thank you so much Liberanos. And thank you Chevalier for your words on President Kaczyński.

Please continue to pray for us. President Kaczyński truly was the best president we had since WWII, an honest, intelligent man. I can’t stop crying.

Please pray especially for Jarosław Kaczyński, the President’s twin brother and right hand in politics. Seeing him kiss his brother’s coffin was heartbreaking.
 
That this would happen as we celebrate Divine Mercy, may St Faustina and Pope John Paul pray for the people of Poland and for the whole world!

For the sake of His sorrowful passion…
…have mercy on us & on the whole world

Eternal Father, I offer you the body & blood, soul & divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins & those of the whole world
 
Praying for Poland, as well as for the families of those who died. The President seems to have been not only an important man politically, but a good one according to all Chev has posted, and Poland has always seemed to me to be one of the brighter spots of the Western world. My sympathies and prayers are with everyone touched in any way by this tragedy.

Blessings in Christ,
KindredSoul
 
I’m really glad you started this thread, Liberanosamalo, because I immediately thought of Chevalier when I heard about this tragedy.

Chevalier, I prayed for Poland today at Mass and will keep your countrymen in my prayers.
 
Please continue to pray for us. President Kaczyński truly was the best president we had since WWII, an honest, intelligent man. I can’t stop crying.
It is so sad few people here in the homeland would have said the same when he was still alive. But it gives a sense of peace and something beyond to see so many pay their respects. As if the whole country regained senses.
 
The Presidential Office has better photographs:

prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/zdjecia/galeria,385.html (Warsaw says farewell to victims of the Smolensk crash)
prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/zdjecia/galeria,384.html (RP President’s farewell in Smolensk)
prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/zdjecia/galeria,386.html (Mass for victims of the air crash)
(this is the Cathedral Mass that gathered crowds everywhere outside; the presiding prelate is abp. Nycz, notice the empty white kneelers; in the centre of 6/11 is the man who has taken the duties now, the Chairman of the Sejm, Bronisław Komorowski, whose ancestor saved a Kaczyński ancestor’s life in the Warsaw uprising, despite the men’s being on opposing sides politically of late)
prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/zdjecia/galeria,383.html (funeral mass in the Katyń forest… this was the mass the President was supposed to attent and they learnt not even an hour before the start; the men at the microphone in 2/9 are the ambassador and a minister from the Presidential Office, most of whose colleagues were on the plane; the presiding prelate is a monsignor–the military bishop died on the plane; you cannot see the empty first couple of rows of seats)
 
Thank you Liberanosamalo for starting this thread. I know many have said it already, but I too agree with them. I think it was thoughtful and needed.

I want Chevalier and MyriamMS and all our brothers and sisters in Poland to know that we are praying for them during this difficult time in their country. We pray for the souls of those lost in that horrible accident and for their families and for all those who mourn for them. Jesus, have mercy on them all.

Thank you, Chevalier, for the photos you allow us to see on your facebook and the others you posted as well. I did not get to see the news and it helped to know what is going on. Thanks again.
 
Yes, please especially remember Myriam, as she is deeply personally affected by the tragedy and it is piercing sorrow that shows through her posts, while she hasn’t asked for any of all the warm regards and expressions of support to which she contributed without even saying she was Polish at first.

Batch 2: Pictures from today:

facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=199656&id=605880947
 
Many of us in America have family in the military and we are aware of just what a wonderful friend Poland is to us. The pain and uncertainty of your country is incomprehensible right now. But you have dear friends in heaven looking down on you. And the Polish people always seem to pick themselves up and keep going. Just know you aren’t alone in the world and many of us in the USA have tremendous respect for Poland.

Thanks, Chev, for sharing the photos. They are very moving.
 
Some of the victims were soldiers of the pre-WW2 Poland, whom communism made its enemies. The late President Kaczorowski (i.e. the last Exiled President) had been given a death sentence by the NKVD at age 21 for organising the scouting movement. It was commuted to deportation and from the work camp he was taken to Gen. Anders’s Army and fought his way through India and the Middle East up to Monte Cassino, where he was the chief telegrapher and telegraphed the victory message… And Katyń, needn’t say more.

Here’s an article about President Kaczyński by an English journalist:

origin.rferl.org/content/The_Kaczynski_Legacy/2009009.html

And there’s another batch of pictures.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top