“We couldn’t be more proud of him. He just means so much to us,” said Sylvia Pacholec, a long-time member of St. Florian Parish in Hamtramck.
Pacholec was among the hundreds of people who attended a special Mass last Sunday afternoon at St. Florian Church in Hamtramck, one of three Catholic churches in what was once a mostly Polish enclave in metro Detroit.
After the Mass, a great many of those in the congregation took part in a procession to Hamtramck’s Pope Park, at Joseph Campau and Belmont, for further prayers.
Another of those attending the Mass was Sally Romanowski, also long-time member of the parish. “You just can’t find words for how you feel,” she said.
Romanowski said she had been up during the wee hous of the morning to watch the beatification ceremony from the Vatican as it was broadcast live on cable TV, but said she caught up on her sleep before heading to the Mass at St. Florian.
Mateusz Walczak, a young pianist and composer from Lodz, Poland, who is visiting his aunt and grandmother in Hamtramck before starting graduate school in Boston this fall, said, “He was a good man and a role model, bringing to us a way of living. He’s like a hero to us.”
Maggie Mieruska, originally from Rzeszow, Poland, said, “I’m really proud that he’s Polish and came from out country. He was such a great leader and authority figure for our faith.”
But a person didn’t have to be Polish to feel elated about the beatification. Although Maroun Moubarak’s wife, Yvonne, is a Polish-American, he is from Lebanon.
“I saw him once, in 1998, when he visited my city in Lebanon. We were standing very close as he passed by just a few feet from us, and we could see how radiant his face looked. My brother said, ‘He’s not only pope, he’s a saint,’” Moubarak said.
