Polish ambassador thanks Canadians for support in national tragedy

By Deborah Gyapong

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN) — Hundreds of Polish Canadians and well-wishers filled Notre Dame Cathedral April 20 for a memorial mass marking the April 10 airline crash that killed the Polish president and more than 90 political, civilian and military leaders.

“Poles will never forget the outpouring of support from Canadians from all walks of life,” said Polish Ambassador Zenon Kosiniak-Kamysz.

The ambassador spoke of how the Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria and the others were on their way to Russia to mark the Katyn forest massacre of 22,000 Polish officers by Soviet secret police 70 years ago.

He spoke of how the truth of Katyn that has lived in the hearts of Poles has now been learned anew in the entire world.

The tragedy cannot be undone, he said, but it has the power to bring people and nations together. He thanked Prime Minister Stephen Harper for declaring a National Day of Mourning on April 15 and for flying government flags at half mast on that day.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney represented the Canadian government at the mass, reading the statement Harper had made to a memorial mass in Mississauga April 15.

“Few countries in the world have endured so much so often at the hands of unforgiving fate as has Poland,” said Kenney on behalf of the prime minister. “But fewer still have demonstrated so much resilience in response to hardship.”

The statement praised the Poles’ “unflagging faith in God,” commitment to family and “capacity for forgiveness.”

A Queen’s Honour Guard in bearskin caps lined the steps of the historic cathedral as Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast presided over the eucharist.

“Before a tragedy of such proportions as we have recently experienced, silence would be the appropriate response,” he said.

He said he hoped the Scripture readings of the mass would “enkindle the flame of hope.”

“Is such a hope irresponsible?” he asked. “Not for a person of faith because our faith is rooted in Jesus who conquered death once and for all.”

“The mass offered in memory of the deceased is an affirmation that we believe they are alive,” he said.

The archbishop called to mind the Polish tradition of lighting candles in cemeteries on Nov. 2. He said we pray for those who have departed to “implore that their eyes be open to the light of God, as that of a newborn who slowly adjusts to the light of day.”

Prendergast described the crash as an international, national and personal tragedy.

“For all of us, this tragic event reminds us again that we must always be prepared to pass from this life to the next perhaps at an unexpected time,” he said.