MY ILLEGAL LIFE
Meditating in the Blog
Tadeusz Isakowicz – Zaleski
The title of the book: ‘My Illegal Life’:
Review
Review author: Mirosław Szyłak-Szdłowski (2008-03-07)
The priest Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski has been very loud lately due to the mirroring hell that the rulers prepared for us.
The Curia reacted very powerfully to his many speeches, press conferences and interviews, and many of the hierarchy of the Church showed him in an unfavourable light – suggestions about insanity were not the sharpest "arguments" which were flooded with Fr Zaleski.
The society immediately polarized, for any he was a brave fighter, heroicly fighting for truth, and for others a reckless warlord, playing with a grenade over an open cesspool and declaring war on his superiors. As he wrote, he threw a tiny pebble out of appearance, and caused a powerful avalanche that besides kidnapped him.
It will not be besides exaggerated, therefore, to say that his name was primarily associated with chaotic mirroring and briefcases, especially after the priest's work came to safety. However, I was most curious in the another face of Father Isakowicz-Zaleski, the man who reached out to the disabled, the pastor of Armenians, a priest who followed the principles of St. Thanks to the book My Life Illegal, this is the face I have seen and I hope that this work will reconstruct the appropriate proportion of the priest's image.
This book is simply a evidence of the conversation between Fr Isakowicz-Zaleski and ed. Wojciech Bonowicz, the writer of "The Weekly of the Universal" and his longtime friend. However, small has been left to the editor, so my illegal life is more like autobiography than dialogue. It can be divided into 4 parts – the first treats the beginnings of the pastoral activity of the priest and about the esbek chicanes, the second about the Brat Albert Foundation, the 3rd about the present situation of the Church, and the 4th about the participation of Fr Zaleski in the mirrors.
In the first part, he spoke very briefly about his childhood and youth, and my peculiar attention was given to the following sentence: “No political or historical matters were involved, I just felt liable for the Church.” I think that these words have been guiding him for later years, which resulted in this alternatively than another attitude that we have late witnessed. Already in the zero year of the seminary, he saw the attitude of power to the Church erstwhile he and 21 alumns received a military appointment.
The first part of the book abounds in the descriptions of the then paranoid barracks reality, which is simply a pervasive hybrid of the year 1984 and Paragraph 22, due to the fact that what else would you call the situation in which he was thrown out of custody (in which he spent a full of 2 months, which was most likely a circumstantial record)?
When he put off his military boots and returned to the seminary, he did not belong to the humblest ones, but there he understood that the sick, the old, were highly important, the most important, but they were powerfully pushed to the margin. And the measurement of our humanity is, among others, how we relate to them. Already then, the charity, social activity, intertwined with large politics, Fr Isakowicz-Zaleski connected with the editorial of underground writings, sold the paper, during the martial law he dealt with interned families, strikers and established contacts with Solidarity activists. It was very unflavoured by his superiors, the curia tried to keep him distant from politics at all costs, while the sukurs – ironically! – came her security.
THE INSTALLATION OF ‘Unknown Investigators’
The priest was attacked twice by “unknown perpetrators”, during the first incident, according to the authoritative version, he burned himself with a candle, during the second 1 – he tied himself up, which is interesting by applying the same knot as utilized during the binding of Fr Jerzy Popiełuszko.
In my illegal life, we will find very detailed descriptions of these robberies, supplemented by information from the IPN files.
Fr Zaleski shows in a very interesting way the realities and perfidious activities of the esbeeks to conflict with the supporting priests Solidarity with their superiors – not once, unfortunately, they succeeded perfectly.
It is besides highly interesting to see a chapter about the Holy Mass celebrated in Huta for them. Lenin and the subsequent pacification of the strike taking place there.
The part that treats, among others, the "Mountain of religion and Light", that is, the celebrated "Muminki" is full of beautiful fragments, from which it is easy to make a full image of a man of integrity, ready to sacrifice everything for the disabled.
Some of them are beautiful, touching, grasping, and charming, and any are human anesthetic and ruthless toward those who are vulnerable.
I am not convinced that specified a comparison can be utilized at all, but having read these 2 parts of the book, having seen the face of the oppositionist and the face of the pastor of the disabled, I wondered which of them required greater courage, fortitude and self-denial.
However, it seems to me that the latter, after all, was no longer adequate to go against the current, with its head flat against the sick system, and something had to be done, perhaps, much more difficult: take work for another man and make a real home for him, providing emotional stability.
By the way, deal with the bureaucratic machine, the taxation office and the state which treats this problem, mildly speaking, after the stepmother.
Already in this part of the book there is any bitterness, but besides a careful leaning over the problems of the modern Church – an institution not paying due attention to the problems most in need.
This concern is most evident in Part 3 erstwhile it discusses the issues of priesthood, over-claricalisation, hermeticism and deficiency of missionary policy.
In very frequently sharp, strong words, he says that seminars "are not preparing priests to deal with possession" and that it is better to open closed churches than to constantly win a finger from pulpit, criticizing and authoritatively announcing what is wrong. Without moving distant from hard subjects, he warns that it is not adequate to call zealously for the protection of the conceived life and to call on women to give birth to severely disabled children, but to take care of these children.
In this part, the author besides describes the pastoral ministry among Armenians, their fascinating culture and history. According to priest Isakowicz-Zaleski, the priesthood is besides responding to the current challenges and surviving what people live, going beyond the spiritual sphere. The echo of this view can be found in the last part, in which he tells about the mirroring, the emergence of the Priest towards safety and the soulful atmosphere (also during discussions with the curia), which arose around him after the publication of this book. There is much sadness, regret, and possibly in this part of it the most bitter words to the church dignitaries. However, this is not a groundless regret or – commercially very bearable – the creation of a sufferer, the pages of this book beats sincere bitterness and the tremendous profession of a man pushed to the margin of the Church, not by politicians, unfavorable journalists or erstwhile officers, but by the word “over-UB-owiec”.
In my “illegal life” there was a beautiful view that after the death of St.John Paul II the sun was extinguished, and now only weak moons are shining.
They shine only with reflected light, which in my opinion fades more and more. In my opinion, the Church is experiencing a deep crisis, which is absurd adequate that it survived the Polish People's Republic and the foul actions of Division IV, and these cracks and cracks appeared in free, sovereign Poland.
The second specified sun as St.John Paul II will most likely not be found, but it should be the curia that should at least look for and advance those able to attract back to the Church of the young.
Maybe that's who this Don Quixote is, who goes against the current Dr. Judy, who, during his “illegal” journey through life, wields the experience of the ethos of Solidarity, openly resisting evil, while turning to the needy?
A well-written, vividly written book by Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski is full of memories and reflections on the condition of the modern world.
The priest, however, does not act in the function of ex cathedra, an all-knowing moralist, who possessed all the minds, on the contrary, at any point states that he is simply a mediocre spiritual guide.
His reflections are filled primarily with concern and full knowing of another man – no substance what mistakes he has made in the past.
Virtual Poland – Books, March 7, 2008
Categories: My Illegal Life, reflection in Blog
Through Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski
March 8, 2008.
Alexander Szumański has always been faithful to his memory.
