‘With God in America’ collects Fr. Walter Ciszek’s writings after release from Soviet Russia

ORCHARD LAKE — Thirty-two years after his death, Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ, still makes an impression on the faith lives of thousands around the world.

The famed American Jesuit priest and Orchard Lake Schools graduate who secretly ministered in the Soviet Union before being discovered by KGB agents and sent to the gulags, was an inspiration to many when he was finally released to the United States. Fr. Ciszek hosted retreats and gave talks about his experience and spiritually behind the Iron Curtain, chronicling them in his two books, With God in Russia (1964) and He Leadeth Me (1973).

Now, with the help of two editors, Fr. Ciszek’s third book, With God in America: The Spiritual Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit, has been released, a reflection on his time spent in America after his release.

The story behind With God in America, edited by John M. DeJak and Fr. Marc Lindeijer, SJ, began in 2012 when DeJak, director of institutional advancement at Fr. Gabriel Richard High School in Ann Arbor and a longtime admirer of Fr. Ciszek, wanted to write something about the famed priest’s ministry. He approached Fr. Daniel L. Flaherty at Loyola University in Chicago, who co-wrote Fr. Ciszek’s other two books, about the idea.

“When I told him I’d like to tackle Fr. Walter’s story, he put me in touch with Fr. Marc,” DeJak said.

Fr. Lindeijer, whose most recent assignment was as assistant postulator for all Jesuit sainthood causes, was already familiar with Fr. Ciszek’s story.

DeJak met the Dutch Jesuit priest in Rome, and the two began poring over all the material collected by the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, N.J. — Fr. Ciszek was ordained in the Byzantine rite so he could minister to Russians — and then later the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, Pa., where his hometown of Shenandoah, Pa., is located.

“What started as an autobiography turned into another Fr. Ciszek book; it was really a cut-and-paste job on our part,” DeJak said. “We did interviews, pored through his diaries he wrote when in the United States. It’s our conviction that his true sanctity really was played out after he returned from the Soviet Union.”

After years of reviewing material related to Fr. Ciszek’s cause for sainthood, Fr. Lindeijer said the editorial process for the book was pretty straightforward.

“The book wrote itself, so to speak, thanks especially to the wealth of material and to the precious recollections of people who had known Fr. Ciszek well,” Fr. Lindeijer said.

With God in America chronicles Fr. Ciszek’s spiritual reflections while back in the United States during the turbulent 1960s, showing his saint-like qualities of patience, inner-calmness and faith after returning from prison in Soviet Russia.

“Everyone knows Fr. Walter for his heroism in Russia, his acceptance of God’s will in whatever place or circumstance God put you in everyday life,” DeJak said. “This book looks at the man who went through this ordeal being back in his own country that itself was torn asunder, that had gone crazy in the world of culture in its politics and on the streets. Here is this man who has it worked out, that Christ is the victor, and who shows openness to anyone; he brought Christ to all.”

The book will be warmly received at Fr. Ciszek’s alma mater, where his memory is alive and well. Msgr. Francis Koper, Orchard Lake Schools’ dean of pastoral formation and a 1967 St. Mary’s College alum, still vividly remembers an assembly at St. Mary’s at which Fr. Ciszek spoke.

“Fr. Ciszek was just released from Russia, and I remembered him peaceful, very happy, full of so much joy,” Msgr. Koper said. “One thing that struck me about him was how glad he was to be released, but he wasn’t the least bit bitter over his imprisonment or his time spent in the gulag. You could just tell that this was truly a holy man.”

During Msgr. Koper’s studies, he would often draw inspiration from With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me, and often cited Fr. Ciszek’s writings in his homilies at St. Kieran Parish in Shelby Township, leading parishioners to ask more about the books and the priest who wrote them.

“He was really ready to lose his faith when he was in solitary confinement at Treblinka (prison); the Russians were trying to break him,” Msgr. Koper said. “That’s when he had this conversion experience. His stories about how he ministered to the prisoners in the camps in Russia, hearing confessions and celebrating the Eucharist under primitive conditions — he was truly a shepherd who smelled like the sheep.”

An influence for priests and laity to this day, DeJak said readers of Fr. Ciszek’s other two books will find a new perspective from the missionary priest in With God in America.

“What I hope people take away from the book is seeing the love of God in every circumstance of life, whether a priest, a single person, a married person, stay-at-home mom or a professor,” DeJak said. “And second, that the saints are our friends. In this process, I started calling Fr. Ciszek ‘Fr. Walter,’ and I was growing in the lessons he was teaching me. And I think the readers will grow in a friendship with Fr. Walter from reading this book.”