Faith and Religion

Single mothers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the 1980s and 1990s revived the cult of a Voodoo goddess Erzulie Dantor, the lwa of vengeance and rage. How is the iconic representation of Haitian Voodoo senior spirit originating in West Africa influenced by the patron saint of Poland, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa?

The Polish National Church was founded in 1897 in Pennsylvania by Reverend Francis Hodur. Father Hodur was born in Żarki in 1866, in the Austrian dominated sector of Poland. In 1893, he emigrated to the United States and was ordained into the priesthood at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Parish in Scranton, PA. A political activist, Father Hodur undertook a mission to Rome to secure a greater voice for Poles in the American Church. Unrest among the Polish parishes was common during this period and rioting broke out in his parish in a dispute over the ownership of church property, use of the Polish language, and selection of local priests.

How old and never-ending is humanity's longing for immortality! Throughout history, we increasingly see philosophers looking for evidence for eternal life, creating various theories of proofs for eternal life, creating various theories about the existence of man in the afterlife. Ancient religions, also the teachings of Greek philosophers, tell us about the immortality of the human soul. The New Testament brings something more: it speaks of the immortality of the whole person, of the resurrection of the body. The immortality of soul and body, the resurrection confirms our special privilege in this world, created by God's hands. Christianity, the faith grew in the shadow of the cross of Christ, fulfills mankind's eternal dream of ceaslessness...

I was moved to write this short essay by a remark observing that one of our American political luminaries who is running for one of the highest offices of the land hates Catholics. To this a friend of mine responded that Catholics hate themselves.

In just a few short years, the south side congregations at St. Stanislaus and St. Hyacinth could not accommodate the growing number of Polish Catholics seeking to worship. Father Gulski decided to divide his St. Hyacinth parish and began efforts to organize a fourth Polish parish in Milwaukee.