ONE BRANCH of the Catholic Church that shows no signs of decline is that belonging to the Polish community.
There are now approximately 200,000 Polish people in Ireland, with roughly 150,000 living in the Republic, according to Fr Jaroslaw Maskiewicz, chaplain to the Polish community in Ireland. The community is being served by 30 Polish priests, most of whom have arrived in Ireland since Poland joined the EU in May 2004.
In September 2006, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Archbishop of Warsaw and Catholic Primate of Poland, attended the inauguration of the Polish chaplaincy to Ireland at St Audoen’s Church on High Street in Dublin. Also there were the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, his predecessor Cardinal Desmond Connell, and about 1,000 Polish people.
Today, St Audoen’s is the only dedicated Polish parish in Ireland. But Masses in the Polish language are now offered in hundreds of Catholic churches all over the island.
“The Irish experience for Polish people here has been very happy,” says Fr Maskiewicz. “Your people are very open for us, especially the older generation. They understand life working abroad. I have never met a [Polish] person who complained or was unhappy [in Ireland].”
Language is only a problem for some older Polish people here. “For young people, it is no problem. They learned [English] at school or college.” He believes many of them will stay in Ireland “10, 20 years”, but that some plan to return to Poland sooner than that. “The Irish bishops and priests have been very positive for us. They are very happy to have Polish people [in their congregations].”
He estimates that as many as 30 per cent of Polish people in Ireland attended Mass weekly, which is similar to Poland itself, except for southern Poland, where the figure is nearer 40 per cent.