Kontakty Parafii Matki Boskiej Częstochowskiej w London, Ontario z Katolickim Uniwersytetem Lubelskim

Abstract

The subject of the article is the question of formation and development of cooperation between the parish of Our Lady of Częstochowa in London, Ontario and the Catholic University of Lublin. It began soon after the parish had been established in 1953 and the then parish priest, Rev. Franciszek Pluta had visited the Catholic University of Lublin. It assumed an organized form only in 1977. It was then that in London a Circle of Friends of the CUL was established. From the very beginning it was prepared to promote the CUL among Polish Canadians and other inhabitants of Canada and to collect funds for the work of the CUL. It was this aim that membership in the Society of Friends of the CUL, as well as organizing all sorts of profitable events and the visits of the University’s official representatives (among others the Rector, Prof. M. A. Krąpiec, Rev. T. Zasępa, Prof. S. Sawicki, Rev. J. Perszon) to London were to serve. A completely different form of these relations was initiated in the middle of the 1990’s by the present parish priest, Rev. Adam Gabriel, who made efforts to make the promotion of the CUL more intensive and the cooperation between the two institutions more effective. It is being carried out, among others, through annual Advent retreats with sermons preached by a representative of the CUL, academic-informational meetings, visits and lectures of CUL professors in London and research projects inspired and moneyed by the parish of Our Lady of Częstochowa in London.