Start Date: 10 May 2021

End Date: 10 May 2021

Time: 06:00pm

Place: 365 Burrows Ave.

bp Padewski 1Bishop Padewski was born February 18, 1894 in Antoniów, a small farming village near Radom in Poland. He emigrated to the United States in 1913 and moved to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit he came into contact with the Polish National Catholic Church. In 1916 he entered the PNCC Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 16, 1919 by Prime Bishop Francis Hodur. He celebrated his first mass at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. In 1931 Father Padewski was sent to Poland as part of the PNCC mission of evangelization in Poland and to work on consolidating the structures of the PNCC (PNKK) in Poland. He was appointed assistant to Bishop Leon Grochowski. In January 1933 at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the PNCC in Poland attended by Bishop Hodur, Father Padewski was appointed administrator of the PNCC in Poland. At the Second Synod of the PNCC in Poland in April 1935 Father Padewski was elected Bishop. Father Padewski was elevated to the Episcopacy on August 26, 1936 in Scranton. Before the Second World War the PNCC had 100,000 members, 52 parishes, 12 affiliate churches, and 52 priests in Poland. On September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west and the Soviet Union invaded from the east. The losses to Poland and to the Church in Poland during the Nazi German and Soviet bp Padewski 3occupation were devastating. Over 6 million Poles died including 3 million Polish citizens of the Jewish faith. Many priests were sent to concentration camps. In all, 28% of PNCC priests were killed. In part, Bishop Padewski was able to save the church from complete liquidation by bringing the church under the control of the Old Catholic Church’s Bishop in Bonn, Erwin Kreuzer. In 1942 Bishop Padewski was arrested by the Nazis and was held at the Montelupich prison in Krakow. He was then transferred to the Tittmoning POW Camp in Germany where he was held for 18 months. Through the intervention of the Swiss Red Cross he was freed and returned to the United States in March 1944. Between 1944 and 1946 Bishop Padewski served as pastor of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa Church in Albany, New York. Bishop Padewski returned to Poland on February 20, 1946 to resume his duties as Bishop of the Polish branch of the PNCC. Shortly after his return, the Soviet Union completed its takeover of Poland and asserted Communist control. In this atmosphere of Stalinist terror, Bishop Padewski was arrested by the Communist Secret Police (UB) in Warsaw and was held at their prison on Rakowieckiej Street. Bishop Padewski died on May 10, 1951 as a result of secret police questioning and maltreatment.

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