The President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, together with his wife, visits today the National Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Many important events will take place there, as guests of editor-in-chief Tomasz Sakiewicz explained on the air of TV Republika.
Karol Nawrocki was sworn in as the President of Poland on August 6. Although his presidency is only in its second month, the head of state is already making his second visit to the United States, this time accompanied by the First Lady, Marta Nawrocka.
The Presidential Couple in the USA
President Nawrocki’s visit to the United States will last several days, from Sunday to Wednesday. It is primarily connected with his participation in the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, during which Karol Nawrocki will deliver a speech.
The visit of the Presidential Couple began at around 1 a.m. Polish time, when the presidential aircraft landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
The first stop on the U.S. program is the Marian shrine in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, known as the American Częstochowa, where a replica of the Black Madonna of Jasna Góra is located. There, the Presidential Couple will also take part in the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the late Prime Minister Jan Olszewski, attend a Holy Mass, and participate in a ceremony awarding distinctions to Polish community activists. The event will begin at 12:10 p.m. local time (around 6:10 p.m. Polish time).
The upcoming events were discussed today on editor-in-chief Tomasz Sakiewicz’s program on TV Republika, Polityczna Kawa, which was broadcast directly from Doylestown.
“A great event for the Polish diaspora”
The station’s head first spoke with Fr. Krzysztof Wieliczko, Provincial of the Pauline Fathers in the United States. He pointed out that the place where the President of Poland is hosted today is not a random spot on the U.S. map.
“This is a very unique hill, called the hill of light. You could call it Jasna Góra, as the Poles did. And that name has remained,” said the clergyman.
Referring to today’s visit of the Presidential Couple to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa, Fr. Wieliczko admitted there is enormous interest in the event.
“We have received many calls. Poles want to come from various regions of the United States, mainly from neighboring ones. What is also a great and positive sign for us is that the President, whom we are delighted and grateful to welcome, will make his first steps before the image of Our Lady of Jasna Góra. He himself wished not only to attend Holy Mass before this image but also to receive Holy Communion here and be together with us. Therefore, the first meeting will be right here, before Our Lady of Jasna Góra. The next one will be under our pavilion, with the Polish community,”
he said.
It turns out that not only Poles living in the United States are interested in attending the event.
“This is a great event for Poles, for the Polish diaspora, and also for everyone who lives here. Not only Poles will come, but also Americans, which makes me very glad. There will also be representatives of the political world. They want to welcome the President. The local police and the Secret Service will also be present, along with many other organizations wishing to greet and meet the President. As a Pauline, I welcome the President with great joy to the American Częstochowa,”
emphasized Fr. Wieliczko.
Jan Olszewski – father of the Polish-U.S. alliance
One highlight of the President’s visit to Doylestown will be the unveiling of a commemorative plaque for the late Jan Olszewski, Prime Minister of Poland in 1992–1993.
“Jan Olszewski de facto shaped Poland’s independence formula and ensured that the negative aspects of the Round Table were challenged, while the independence movement was defined and its entire program formulated by Jan Olszewski and his government,” said Antoni Macierewicz, Minister of Internal Affairs in Olszewski’s government, on TV Republika.
He also recalled Olszewski’s role in supporting the Workers’ Defense Committee in the 1970s.
When asked why the former Prime Minister would be commemorated specifically in Doylestown, Macierewicz replied:
“The American Częstochowa plays a fundamental role for the Polish diaspora, it is a point of reference for Poles throughout America. And Jan Olszewski was the man who first laid the foundations of the Polish-U.S. alliance. He initiated and engaged in it.”
The Polish community grows stronger
Adrian Kubicki, former Consul General of Poland in New York, speaking about the significance of the Polish community in American political and social life, emphasized that “it is a matter of identity, which Poles in America have gained and continue to gain in recent years.”
“They are not afraid, and thanks to places like the American Częstochowa, they go out to their American neighbors and friends, sharing their values. The more the Polish community steps out of its enclaves and enters American structures, the stronger its influence becomes. Persistent stereotypes are being broken, a positive image of Poland is being built, and it turns out that Poles form a very important political base,” said Kubicki.
He assessed that the President’s meeting with the Polish diaspora would be “killing two birds with one stone.”
“One thing characterizes the Polish community: it deeply cares about Poland’s fate. So they are not only advocates for their own lives and status in the U.S., but they are also strongly concerned with Poland’s security situation and with how economic cooperation between Poland and the U.S. will develop,” he noted.
Tadeusz Antoniak, head of the “Gazeta Polska” Clubs in the United States, also spoke on TV Republika.
“I want to say that it has already become something of a tradition that the President of Poland comes here, to the American Częstochowa, to greet the Polish community. This was also the case in 2016, when, during his visit, he unveiled the Monument to the Cursed Soldiers. Back then, he came to us as the first head of the Gdańsk branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, chief of its education department- Karol Nawrocki. Later he would return here as Director of the Museum of the Second World War, and then as President of the Institute of National Remembrance,”
he pointed out.