Conversion penetrated Poland’s Iron Curtain

He is: Father Ryszard (Richard) Groń, associate pastor at St. Constance Parish on the Northwest Side. Ordained 1988. Former director of formation at Bishop Abramowicz Seminary here; editorial assistant of Katolik, archdiocese’s Polish language newspaper and the only diocesan-sponsored newspaper for Polish-speaking Catholics in the country.

Home town: He grew up in Wroclaw, Poland’s fourth largest city.

Childhood: “I was born in 1963. Communism began to crumble by 1980-89. Anti-Communism was strong in the church. In fact, the church was the only place you could express your opinions.”

He had lost his parents. “I grew up in the home of my maternal grandmother, with my aunt and cousin. They were my only family. My aunt died in 1995 when her cancer returned due to radiation from Chernobyl. “I got my whole religious point of view in this house. I owe them everything. I went to Mass on Sundays, even when I didn’t want to. I didn’t know much about my faith, except that it was an obligation. But during the one and a half mile walk to church, they would speak about religion.

“I posed a lot of questions and my grandmother answered me. It was my first encounter with religion, thanks to my grandma. I didn’t understand a lot.”

School: “I went to the Communist-run public school. It was a different world from home. It helped that the teachers told me, as a kid, that I should not believe in God — I wanted to do the opposite! Their lies increased my faith. They said there was no God, it was our imagination. But at home there was a cross hanging on the wall, and we went to Mass. In May and June we went to devotions. It was another world where God was alive and God was part of your life.”

Youth: “During my teen years I never thought about priesthood. Sometimes I was against organized religion.” He listened as his teachers criticized the church and criticized priests. “I was just a kid. It was confusing, and there was a time when I just didn’t believe in anything.

“I remained a basically good kid during high school and my young adult years, so I was a little isolated from my peers.” He found a best friend, the son of the church organist, who was pious. “He kept insisting we go to some ‘vacation with God,’ (a youth retreat). Finally I gave in. I was 19.”

Awakening: “Those two weeks were my second encounter with God. It was fantastic. Every day they read from the Bible. For me it was something entirely new. ‘How can they be reading a book written by a few men 2,000 years ago?’ I never before had this concept. In fact, when I first saw all the praying together, I thought it was some psychosis or something.

“Then we went out and observed nature, and they said, ‘All these things have to have had some beginning and something that maintains them.’ The awareness came to me very slowly, but I started to think.

“At the close of the ‘vacation’ they played the movie ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ by Zeffirelli. I was so moved. To think after 2,000 years there is some guy who cares about what happens to you and your problems, whether you’re a sinner or not. It was extraordinary.”

Priesthood: “It was like a 180- degree turn in my life. After that I began to think about priesthood. It was 1982 — the communists imposed marital law, Solidarity’s leaders were arrested, and I discovered God, Jesus.

“I entered the seminary secretly because the communists kept their eyes on seminarians in case they might escape to another country. We had to sign up at 18 for the army. I asked for a deferment to go to university to study ‘history.’”

Study: He was ordained in 1988, after six years of study. He was an associate pastor for six years then went to Spain for his doctorate. “In 2002 I asked our bishop if I could learn English. That was what brought me to Chicago. If you know Polish, Spanish and English, you can read anything.”

Favorite saints: “Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross — the subject I investigated for my Ph.D in Spain; St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.”