Former archbishop maintained deep ties to cultural heritage

Detroit — In 1976, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, Poland — now St. John Paul II — visited the Orchard Lake Schools, and that visit was to have beneficial consequences for Polish-American Catholics and change the life of a Polish-American bishop in northern Michigan.

At Orchard Lake, the future pontiff  learned not only about that unique Polish-American Catholic institution — which then included St. Mary’s Preparatory, St. Mary’s College and SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary — but also about Polonia, the Polish diaspora in the United States, explained Msgr. Francis Koper, now dean of pastoral formation and professor of pastoral theology and Church history at the seminary.

In those conversations, Msgr. Koper said Cardinal Wojtyla asked Msgrs. Stanley Milewski and Walter Ziemba, now both of blessed memory, to identify the leaders among Polish-Americans in the Church.

One of those they named was then-Bishop Edmund C. Szoka of Gaylord, and Msgr. Zdzislaw Peszkowski (1918-2007) — the former Polish cavalry officer and Katyn Forest massacre survivor — drove the visiting Polish cardinal up to Gaylord to meet him.

Two years later, Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope, and three years after that, the first Polish pope named Bishop Szoka archbishop of Detroit.

“So, that visit was very important,” Msgr. Koper remarked.

“We were elated, because finally we had a Polish-American archbishop of Detroit,” he added.

Msgr. Koper said it is easy to see why the two men hit it off and developed a good relationship: “Pope John Paul’s motto was ‘Totus Tuus’ — ‘Totally Yours’ — and Cardinal Szoka was totally dedicated to the Church, both locally and in the wider world.”

The monsignor praised Cardinal Szoka as “a man of deep insight and great decisiveness — he stuck by his guns and did what needed to be done,” citing the way he handled controversies that arose during his time as archbishop, as well as his later work at the Vatican.

“He could read a financial statement, and he knew that you can’t have what you can’t afford,” Msgr. Koper said.

The late cardinal was also a “great advocate of social justice,” the monsignor continued, pointing to his reform of working conditions for Vatican employees, which included just compensation and reducing the work week from six days to five.

“Cardinal Szoka was a great leader, because he understood what leadership was all about, but it was always for the people of God, never for himself,” he said.

As archbishop, Cardinal Szoka was chairman of the Orchard Lake seminary’s board of trustees, and in 1985 he welcomed the first seminarians who came there to study to become priests for service in Polish-American parishes.

That program was another fruit of St. John Paul’s 1976 visit to the campus, when he proposed an exchange of seminarians.

“I was rector of the seminary in those days, and I met with Cardinal Szoka twice a year for nine years to discuss it, and he was a great supporter of the seminary,” Msgr. Koper added.

Fr. Walter Ptak, now a member of the SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary faculty, was a college seminarian studying at St. Mary’s College, Orchard Lake, when he had his first contact with Cardinal Szoka.

Looking toward the next stage of his priestly formation, he wrote the new archbishop, asking if he could stay at Orchard Lake and attend SS. Cyril & Methodius, because of its Polish connection.

“He wrote me back, saying that because I was studying for Detroit, he wanted me to go to St. John’s (the former provincial seminary in Plymouth Township), but that he would support me in taking any Polish studies courses I wanted to during the summers,” Fr. Ptak recalled.

“I thought that was great, that he responded with a personal letter. And then, when I met him shortly after, he asked me what I was going to do to keep up my studies in Polish language and culture, and I thought that was really great,” Fr. Ptak continued.

Then, when he was about to be ordained a transitional deacon, he and other seminarians were at the archepiscopal residence, and Cardinal Szoka took him into the kitchen and told him to converse in Polish with the kitchen staff, who were all from Poland.

The cardinal must have liked what he heard, because then-Deacon Ptak was chosen to proclaim the Gospel during Pope John Paul’s stop in Hamtramck during the 1987 papal visit.

“I still have people tell me they saw a picture from that time, and, ‘There was the pope, Cardinal Szoka and you,’” Fr. Ptak said.

Fr. Ptak’s involvement in the local Polish-American priests conference, and more recently on a national level — he is currently president of the Polish-American Priests Association of the United States — led to further occasional contact while Cardinal Szoka was in Rome and after his retirement.

“Cardinal Szoka always had the Polish community at heart,” he said.

Msgr. Thomas Machalski, current rector of SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary, attested to Cardinal Szoka’s continued involvement with the Orchard Lake institutions and with the Polish seminarians who come to study there.

“He always enjoyed talking with the seminarians, asking them where they were from in Poland, and showing an interest in their families,” he said.