SELECTED TOPICS IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND PASTORAL MINISTRY OF BISHOP KAZIMIERZ JOZEF KOWALSKI FROM 1946 TO 1951

Abstract

Bishop Kazimierz Jozef Kowalski arrived to Diocese of Chelmno in 1946. Throughout his life he was associated with the local Churches of Gniezno and Poznan. To begin a ministry in a foreign diocese which was also largely destroyed by the German occupiers certainly posed a challenge. Bishop Kowalski immediately started to rebuild what had been lost during the war. He began with administrative reforms by establishing new parishes and nominating clergy to those that remained vacant due to the deaths or the wartime emigration of priests. He cared for the sacred art (in Bishops’ Conference he was a member of the Commission for Sacred Art) which was manifested in numerous initiatives and funding appeals. He gave numerous homilies on the occasion of important events not only in the diocesan Church but also nationwide. He took care of the memory of murdered priests. The burial of the auxiliary bishop Konstantyn Dominik, who died during the war, was a powerful symbolic act. He helped the faithful wounded by the war to return to their spiritual and pastoral practices. In these aspects he was distinguished by his forbearance and gentleness. His life was to serve the Church, as he proved by his outstanding stewardship of the diocese in its first (and undoubtedly the most difficult) post-war years.