The Franciscan Family has four new priests and nine new deacons. On June 1, 2024, the Most Reverend Damian MUSKUS, OFM, Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow, conferred the sacrament of Orders upon his confreres from the Friars Minor, the Friars Minor Capuchin and the Friars Minor Conventual. The ordinations took place at the Basilica of St. Francis in Cracow, Poland.
Bishop MUSKUS told his younger confreres that ordination is a unique gift: “It is certainly not nourishment for your strengths, abilities, talents and imagination. It does not give you the right to reform the Church according to your own vision or ideas. It is not a passport to visit political salons or places frequented by the upper classes. It does not authorize you to seek golden things but modest ones. It cannot be equated with graduating from acting school, after which you can play the role of a priest for the rest of your life with great success.”
Later in his homily, he stressed: “You are ordained to be witnesses of Christ. He must be your strength. It is His company you must desire. He must be your greatest wealth. He is the one whom you must serve. The Lord will send you into the midst of human misery, not because you seek to remedy it on your own, but because He can work through you: to heal, to preach, to deliver people from the burden of sin, and to give them hope.” He encouraged the friars to follow the example of the Order’s founder, St. Francis of Assisi, and be credible witnesses of Christ the Savior, humble, compassionate with those who suffer, sensitive to their pain, attentive to the least among us, and in solidarity with the weak and the rejected.
Finally, he said: “Today, I wish, above all, that you be witnesses of God who is close to you. Don’t be theoretical about your close relationship with Jesus, but practice it faithfully, taking care of it so that you do not get lost in the temptations of the world. I want you to always remember that whatever you do, great or small, it is He who works through you, not you. Beware of falling into the false belief of the uniqueness of your mission. Learn from St. Francis how to bear the wounds of Jesus in your person, how to see that “Love” is not yet loved, and understand what to do so that it may be loved again in the Church, in others and in yourselves.”
The Major Superiors of the newly ordained priests and deacons and the Directors of School of Franciscan Studies offered their best wishes. The newly ordained publicly thanked God and those present for all that made this day special and unique in their lives.
There are three new Conventual Franciscan priests from the Province of St. Anthony and Bl. James of Strepar in Poland (Cracow). They are Friars Dawid JEZIORSKI, Dawid FURGAŁ and Szymon TUPTOŃSKI. There are three new deacons from the same Province: Friars Łukasz GRADEK, Mateusz HNAT and Szymon GRESZTA. There are two new Conventual Franciscan deacons from the Custody of the Holy Cross in Ukraine, namely, Friars Serhiy HOROVY and Vladyslav PASHAYEV. There is one new priest, Friar Łukasz KUCIĘBA, and two new deacons, Friars Łukasz GRYZŁO and Ignacy Łukasz FIRLIT, from the Friars Minor Province of Our Lady of the Angels. Finally, there are two new deacons, Friars Daniel WÓJCIK and Kamil PASIERBSKI, from the Capuchin Franciscan Province of Cracow.
Friar Jan M. SZEWEK
