Katyn Priest

I thought this was a good story and part of Polish History now.

Polonia's Katyń priest laid to rest in Warsaw, By Robert Strybel, Polonia Warsaw Correspondent.
Few people get such a send-off, but no-one was more deserving of it than one of Polonia's best-known clergymen, Monsignor Zdzisław Peszkowski. A native of Sanok, Poland, Peszkowski attended the Cavalry Academy in Grudziądz, served as a cavalryman in the September 1939 campaign against Hitler's Germany, only to fall into Soviet captivity. But he miraculously survived Russia's attempted genocide, went on to become a priest, educated several generations of young Polish Americans at Orchard Lake, and, after retiring, went on to successfully challenge the Kremlin over the Katyń massacre.Father Peszkowski, who passed away at the age of 89 at the Cardiologcal Clinic in the Warsaw suburb of Anin on October 8th, was truly given the hero's funeral he so richly deserved. Warsaw's St. John the Baptist Cathedral was full to overflowing with grateful members of the Katyń Families, people who had lost their loved ones in what the Polonian priest called “the Golgotha of the East”. Father Peszkowski’s unbridled determination and enthusiasm was what largely led to the creation of proper military cemeteries in Katyń, Mednoye and Kharkiv, the Soviet murder sites, where most of his 22,000 comrades in arms had perished in 1940 with a bullet to the back of the head. Among the mourners were Polands bishops, Polish President Lech Kaczyński and the last London émigré president Ryszard Kaczorowski, members of parliament, Polish-American representatives including Orchard Lake Schools Chancellor Father Timothy, numerous, priests and nuns, war veterans and senior scouts (Father Peszkowski was Scoutmaster General to Harcerstwo [Polish scouts] abroad). Many ordinary Warsovians, who had heard about his unique contributions, also came to pay their respects. A large TV screen was positioned outside the cathedral so the overflow crowd could follow the proceedings.In his sermon, read out by an auxiliary bishop, due to a vocal indisposition, Primate Józef Glemp said Father Peszkowski's rich and varied life could easily have filled the biographies of several people. He presented its successive stages and emphasized the fact that the late monsignor had always and everywhere fought for Polish causes. But he is best remembered for his untiring struggle to uncover and propagate the truth about Katyń, memorialize its victims and console their descendants. Elements of military ritual enriched the funeral mass. A military, police, veteran and scout honor guard surrounded the golden-oak coffin, on whose lid were placed a priestly missal, chalice and stole. The Gospel and Elevation of the Blessed Sacrament were signaled by bugle calls, and military color guards were plainly in evidence around the chancel. The funeral cortege was led by six mounted cavalrymen, uniformed and armed with sabers and lances as Cadet Sergeant Peszkowski had when riding off to war in 1939. A seventh riderless steed was led by a cavalrymen on foot, its empty saddle symbolizing the fallen horseman. After leading the cortege through the cobbled streets of Warsaw's picturesque Old Town to the Field Cathedral of Polands Military Chaplaincy, the mounted escort handed the honors over to nearly 200 Katyń Rally bikers. The spectacular roaring motorcycle escort was quite a sight to the Warsovian onlookers along the way. The procession led across the city to the southern suburb of Wilanów, site of the Church of Divine Providence, originally to have been built in the late 18th century in thanksgiving for the Third of May Constitution. It was only after Poland dumped communism in 1989 that Primate Glemp revived the project, but a lack of funds and opposition from the post-communists have stalled the construction.Although Father Peszkowski had frequently expressed the wish to be buried with his fallen comrades-in-arms at Katyń, he was laid to rest in the Crypts of Deserving Poles of the partially built basilica. Only temporarily? Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz has hinted that at some future date, perhaps when Polish-Russian relations are less strained, some way of fulfilling the monsignors last will may be found.