Chicagoland

Banquet raises money, honors donor’s generosity

By Alicja Pozywio | Staff writer
Sunday, September 26, 2010

Almost 300 people showed their support and concern for priestly vocations in the Archdiocese of Chicago by attending the annual benefit banquet for Bishop Abramowicz Seminary Sept. 12 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.

“Poland sends us her sons to be our fathers — it was a line used often to describe the purpose of the Bishop Abramowicz Seminary founding,” said Cardinal George, who was among the guests at the banquet.

Bishop Abramowicz Seminary provides academic and formation programs for Polish seminarians who come to Chicago and are ordained for the archdiocese. Since Cardinal George founded the program in 1999, it has prepared and ordained 25 priests. Four men entered the seminary this year.

“I’m grateful to the gift of these priests and the seminarians; the gifts they are to us. I’m grateful also to their families and to the Polish hierarchy that is willing to share some vocations they have in Poland with us here in Chicago and in Polonia,” the cardinal said.

The banquet is an annual fundraiser for the seminary. Each year, the Board of Advisors presents the Caritas Christi Award to the person, parish, group or institution that exemplifies openness to the diversity in ministry, sensitivity to cultural diversity, giving of self and service to the Bishop Abramowicz Seminary and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

This year the award went to Edward Matuga for his generosity to Abramowicz Seminary and other work.

Story of love

“In 1958, Ed and his wife had a son, Michael, born with Down syndrome. To respond to Michael’s needs, Ed founded an organization called Aspire to help take care of underdeveloped and disabled children,” said Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a former Chicago auxiliary bishop and the former chairman of the seminary’s Board of Advisors.

A half century later, it has provided services to more than 1,000 individuals. It has also provided jobs to more than 400 people. In a his speech, Matuga said that Michael, who just celebrated his 50th birthday, was initially predicted to live only eight years. “Today, as was predicted by our friend, Michael is our ladder to heaven,” Matuga said.

Among the other guests were retired Bishop Thad Jakubowski; Bishop Francis Kane; and many priests, seminarians, nuns and lay people.

New seminarians

The four men who joined the seminary this year are:

Lukas Klimaszewski, 27, who has finished five years of seminarian education and has a master’s degree in theology. Klimaszewski came to Chicago from the Bialystok Seminary located in northeast Poland.

Since he had always wanted to be a missionary, leaving Poland was not difficult for him, he said.

Piotr Samborski, 22, who finished three years of seminary in Siedlce, Poland, learned his faith at home.

“I was born into a traditional, Catholic family. We prayed together, played together and went to church together,” said Samborski.

He believes that there is a new type of missionary needed in the church: Missionaries who will work in secular countries.”

Pawel Adamus, 26, was very close to ordination in the seminary of Siedlce. “But he doesn’t regret his decision. “I will have more time to discern my vocation,” said Adamus.

He wants to be a priest who knows how to build human relations, “just like John Paul II was doing,” said Adamus. He likes that the Bishop Abramowicz Seminary stays in this same building with the seminarians from Casa Jesus, a house of discernment for Spanishspeaking men. Both are located on the campus of Holy Name Cathedral. “We are getting to know them and they are getting to know us. It is good, because we are learning something about the American church,” said Adamus.

Pawel Barwikowski, 22, decided to come to Chicago after three years of studying in the seminary in Elk, Poland.

When he was leaving for Chicago, the rector said, “I’m letting you go, because the church is universal, serving in Poland or in the United States, you will be serving the same church.”

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