Day 3 - I Love Warsaw!

Poland Aug 30, 2018

The pilgrimage part of our trip began today. We have a large group, 2 buses full, for a total of 70 people. The spiritual director is Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, assisted by Fr. Dante Aguero, MIC.

If you're not familiar with Fr. Calloway I strongly suggest you look him up. He's called the "surfing priest" and has quite a few videos on YouTube. He has an incredible conversion story--high school drop out, drugs, belonged to gangs, arrested several times. He is a dynamic speaker and has written quite a few books.

Upon reaching our church this morning, a Polish nun approached Fr. Calloway. She said she's read all his books and has all his videos. She saw online that he would be in Poland and at this church on this day and she just had to meet him. She said she'd been waiting in front of that church since 7:00 am because she didn't know when he would arrive and didn't want to miss him! (We got there at 9:30)

Our Mass was held in St. James Church, the church that St. Faustina visited in 1924 upon entering Warsaw. She stepped off the train, looked around, saw the church steeple and immediately went to pray. St. James became her place of worship while she was in Warsaw.

I love Warsaw!

It's an amazing city and it's amazing history makes it even better. Warsaw was almost totally destroyed in WWII. It was heavily bombed by the Germans while the Russian army watched helplessly from across the Vistula River. Since the Germans had bombed all the bridges the Russians were unable to help. After the war, thousands of Polish citizens pitched in to clean up the rubble and to begin rebuilding.

The Chopin statue in L azienki Park is incredible!

There was a somber stop at the site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Before the war, Warsaw was a large center for Jewish culture and life. It was known for its religious tolerance and freedom and had the largest Jewish population in Europe. The Nazis forced Warsaw's entire 300,000 Jews into a small ghetto of only a few square blocks.

Little by little, the Nazis began deporting the population to concentration camps. In the summer of 1942, more than a quarter of a million Jews were deported from the ghetto. The remaining Jews began building bunkers and smuggling weapons into the ghetto. Knowing they were going to die anyway, they decided to go down fighting.

The Jewish Ghetto Uprising began in April 1943, when the Jews refused to surrender to the police. The Nazis proceeded to burn the ghetto block by block. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed, about half of them either burned alive or suffocated. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during WWII.

Warsaw's Old Town is charming--although not very old. Since it was almost totally destroyed in WWII, it's all relatively new. The Poles painstakingly rebuilt the Old Town replicating the original buildings. They did an amazing job.