Polonia in the USA

     Baltimore, Md. For over the past 100 years here, bright sunlight has freely streamed through the vibrant stained glass windows of historic St. Stanislaus Kostka R.C. Church. Now comes the proprietary Franciscan Friars and their prospective developer who want to remove the colorful windows and replace them with clear glass. A total of 61 windows, of all types, exist in the upper and lower churches that comprise the building. Some are grouped together on the front of the church to appear as two large dome-shaped windows.

     As per previous reports in this newspaper: The church was closed in 2000. A committee of concerned former parishioners and Polish groups later negotiated to buy the church and establish a Polish Church Museum and Cultural/Community Center. A long and bitter court battle ensued when the Franciscans abruptly and arbitrarily returned the purchase contract without their co-signature. They were then sued for breech of contract by the St. Stan's Committee, which ultimately lost its case in 2007 at the Maryland Court of Appeals level.

Read more: St. Stan’s Stained Glass Windows Imperiled

WASHINGTON, D.C. // It seemed like a good idea at the time, and turned out to be an excellent one when it was finally brought to fruition. Counselor Mariusz Brymora -  Chief of the Culture, Press and Public Relations Office here at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland - wanted to undertake a commemorative project to celebrate Polish immigration to America that began with the first Poles who arrived in the new English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia in 1608.

Encouraged by Ambassador Robert Kupiecki, Brymora teamed up with Professor James S. Pula, of Purdue University, to write their book "400 Years Of Polish Immigrants In America, 1608-2008." The resulting large format album was published in 2008 to coincide with the 400^th Anniversary of Jamestown, whose Polish contingent of the settlers represented the vanguard of all the Polonia in America today.

Read more: 400 Years of Polish Immigrants To America

     WASHINGTON, D.C. // Malgorzata Szum arrived here from Poland in August, 2009 in the immediate wake of her predecessor, Mariusz Brymora, who was elevated in the Foreign Ministry and reposted to Warsaw. Without pausing a single heartbeat, she immersed herself in the extensive and onerous responsibilities and duties involved with being the Head of the Culture, Press and Public Relations Office at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland.

Read more: Malgorzata Szum - Polish Culture New Face

WASHINGTON, D.C.  It was a very proud moment for Allen Paul - author of "Katyn: The Untold Story of Stalin's Polish Massacre" (1991/2007) - when Ambassador Robert Kupiecki invested him with the gleaming Commander's Cross, Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, here on April 2, 2009 at Poland's embassy before a large gathering of family, friends and Polonia.

Allen Paul thanked Ambassador Kupiecki for his glowing and extensive introduction, and Poland and all Poles for the high honor they bestowed upon him. With no direct connection to Poland, Paul said that he authored the book because he is a reporter at heart and recognized Katyn as a most tragic story that needed to be told again - but this time in a personal, humanizing manner.

In his somber tome, Paul painstakingly examines Stalin's infamous act of genocide whereby he ordered his Soviet NKVD to murder over 15,000 captive Polish Army officers, officials, professionals and intelligentcia in the Katyn Forest, near Smolensk, Belorussia in the spring of 1940, early on in WWII. Scholarly research in recent years has now placed the presently known number of the select Polish victims at approximately 22,000.

Read more: 'Katyn' Author Allen Paul Decorated