On Saturday, June 8, 2024, two friars from the Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk) received the sacrament of Orders. Friar Adam DUNST was ordained to the diaconate and Friar Wojciech SZUTOWICZ was ordained to the priesthood. They were both ordained by the Most Reverend Zbigniew ZIELIŃSKI, Bishop of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg.
The Mass of Ordination began at 11:00 a.m., at the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church in Koszalin, Poland. The liturgy was attended by friars from the entire Province, including the Minister Provincial, Friar Wojciech KULIG, and the Minister Provincial of the Province of the Immaculate Mother of God in Poland (Warsaw), Friar Piotr ŻURKIEWICZ, who is finishing his ministry as Rector of the seminary in Łódź Łagiewniki. Others attending included the friars of the seminary, the postulants, and the families and friends of the candidates.
In his homily, Bishop ZIELIŃSKI spoke of the value of the evangelical call of the Church to reach out to those who have not yet discovered faith within themselves. He encouraged the candidates, as well as all the clergy gathered, to remember the context in which their vocation arose. The bishop considered one’s vocation to be a Franciscan priest as an important indicator: “This further highlights the character of your ministry in the Church. Franciscans have in the tabernacle the same Lord Jesus, the same principles of faith and the same commandments; we discover this mission on the terrain of the universal Church. You become Franciscans to make the Church even more visible, not to enclose yourselves in it, like a turtle in its shell. The Franciscan charism and the evangelical counsels become the guides of your life, they are revitalizing leaven for the Church, just as it happened with the plan revealed to the world by the vocation of St. Francis of Assisi. Today the spirit of St Francis is much needed in the world, especially in our latitudes, where there are people permeated by practical materialism and say they don’t need the spiritual life.”
After the ordinations, the friars received their Letters of Obedience from the Minister Provincial. Friar Wojciech is to begin his ministry in Lębork, Poland and Friar Adam is to serve in Klaipėda, Lithuania.
Maja STUDZIŃSKA
