You were the spokesman of the nation fighting for its sovereignty in the struggle against the system of totalitarian state", wrote the Holy Father John Paul II about archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk. On December 16 in Przemysl during the presentation of books about archbishop we heard not only the words of the Polish Pope, proving that the work of archbishop is still valid. Archbishop Tokarczuk defending the evangelical truth and the rights of people persecuted for their faith, deserved also our gratitude.
Ignacy Tokarczuk is undoubtedly an important figure for contemporary Polish history. Still, in the common consciousness of Poles he is too rarely mentioned as a tenacious defender of the rights of the faithful of the Catholic Church and one of the spiritual leaders of the peaceful struggle of the Polish nation for independence. - President Lech Kaczyński honored Archbishop Tokarczuk with the Order of the White Eagle. In 2016, when the Sejm joined in the great event of the 1050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland, together with the Polish authorities and the Bishops' Conference, we decided that we need to recall the figure of the bishop who was unbroken. W parliamentary resolution, quoting the Holy Father, we indicated how to defend the truth. 2018 has become the Year of Archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk - recalls Marek Kuchciński.
For the people of the Church Archbishop Ignacy was, above all, the author of wise and uncompromising sermons. In his homily recalled during the meeting Archbishop Tokarczuk says among other things: Today's times require each of us to listen more to God than to people. Because people pass away, but God and our immortality lasts. And truth and rightness also lasts forever.
He is also remembered as the bishop thanks to whom, despite the opposition of the communists, more than 400 new churches were built in the diocese of Przemyśl by 1993. In the 1970s, he opened the Episcopal Curia in Przemyśl for meetings of the democratic opposition and independence movement, especially the independent peasant movement. During martial law, he helped the families of those interned.
In the Archdiocesan Museum in Przemysl a meeting took place "There is God - there is truth - there is gratitude. In memory of Archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk", during which the following was presented books On Archbishop Tokarczuk: "Unbroken" (Sejmowe Publishing House) and "Archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk (1918-2012). Metropolitan of Przemysl" (IPN). Dr. Dariusz Iwaneczko, director of the Institute of National Remembrance Branch in Rzeszów, Janusz Czarski, director of the Cultural Center in Przemysl, and Father Marek Wojnarowski, director of the Archdiocesan Museum in Przemysl, attended the ceremony under the honorary patronage of His Excellency Adam Szal, Archbishop Metropolitan of Przemysl, Marek Kuchciński, MP, and Wladyslaw Ortyl, Marshal of the Podkarpacie Province.
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