August 21, 2005
Fr. Walter Ciszek 1904-1984
Continuing my mini-series on people who may be canonized that I’ve known, I turn my attention to an extremely great man Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ who was a prisoner in Soviet Russia for twenty-five years. Fr. Ciszek wrote two very interesting books With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me both published by Doubleday. Many older people will remember when this priest, who was supposed to be dead, came back out of Russia released by the communist government. He had gone into Russia a quarter of a century earlier to try to work quietly as a missionary. He had spent most of his time in concentration camps and in Siberia. He was a man of outstanding faith and an utterly courageous person. I was privileged to know father in his old age. When you would meet him you would have a certain sense of awe in the presence of such a man, but he completely disarmed you by his informal ways. He was a deeply spiritual person following in the traditional path of Jesuit spirituality. I was very delighted when I was asked by Bishop Michael Dudik of the Ruthenian Diocese of Passaic to be the censor of the two books of Fr. Ciszek for the opening of his cause of beatification. Never did books need censorship less than these two books, and I was delighted to testify that they were of the most solid Catholic faith.
Sometimes in our own lives we get discouraged by the difficulties surrounding life in the church. Even priests and bishops can get discouraged. The life of Fr. Ciszek and his great message He Leadeth Me is something that we all need to keep in mind. If you know our friars and sisters you might someday ask Sr. Lucille about her very good friend and spiritual guide Fr. Walter Ciszek. You can learn more about him from the internet by putting in Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ in a search engine like Google; you will come up with any number of places to click onto. You may also write to: Fr. Ciszek Prayer League, 231 North Jardin St., Shenandoah, PA 17976-1642
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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