Jasna Góra: 101st Health Service Pilgrimage and 45th Medical Retreat

May 18, 2025

Source of the text: https://www.ekai.pl/jasna-gora-101-pielgrzymka-sluzby-zdrowia-i-45-rekolekcje-medykow/

Bishop Piotr Kleszcz, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Łódź, spoke at Jasna Góra to the participants of the 101st Healthcare Pilgrimage about the coherence of love flowing in three directions: to God, to one’s neighbor, and to oneself. The event was traditionally preceded by a retreat for the medical community.

Health Service representatives gathered at Jasna Góra for the 45th time during the retreat initiated by Blessed Father Jerzy Popiełuszko. The priest considered it a necessary preparation for the proper experience of the pilgrimage; this year it was the 101st. The pilgrimage was also joined by the Sisters of Nurses Serving the Sick, who were celebrating their annual day of recollection.

The Holy Mass was celebrated by Bishop Romuald Kamiński, delegate of the Polish Episcopal Conference for the pastoral care of the Health Service, and Bishop Piotr Kleszcz, who delivered the homily. Addressing the audience, he emphasized the importance of love for God, for one’s neighbor, and for oneself. He explained, following St. John, that only by loving another person whom we can see, can we love God, whom we cannot see. However, he made it clear that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, which means that we should treat our own person with respect. Love in these three directions is coherent, and the quintessence of service to another person should be the commandment “That you love one another, as I have loved you.” Bishop Kleszcz also expressed his appreciation for the calling of the Health Service to care for a person from the moment of conception in the mother’s womb until natural death. “If you love, you will not harm, if you do not love, it can be different,” he added.

On behalf of Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland, Minister Piotr Ćwik read the letter. The President, thanking the pastoral care and the entire medical community for their involvement in organizing the pilgrimage, emphasized that especially in the face of the recent intensification of attacks on medical professionals in our country, their presence “right here and now” is a beautiful testimony of unwavering fidelity to their calling. He also noted that he had awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta to Tomasz Solecki, a doctor murdered while on duty in a hospital.

The organizer of the pilgrimage, Fr. Arkadiusz Zawistowski, the chaplain of the Health Service, reminded that the spirit of the pilgrimage is still based on the ideals of the medical community, for which Blessed Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko fought. His goal, realized to this day, was to integrate, strengthen the community and show that also through specific actions they have their place in the Church.

Mirosław Pietrzak, one of the speakers, noted that the current global situation is closely related to the lack of respect for values. – Human life is sacred – he said, firmly emphasizing that we should be a civilization of life, not death. He recalled that the retreat and pilgrimage fall in the Marian month, around the feast of the patron saint of Poland, Andrzej Bobola. They take place at Jasna Góra and the future of Poland, and also of Europe, will depend on our attitudes and choices.

Mariola Marenicz-Hyla A nurse from Wrocław noticed that being on a pilgrimage to Jasna Góra gives strength to fight for human life, and Mary is the strength to defend it. She also emphasized that it is important for medics to know “where their roots are”, and they are with the Mother.

Nurse Hanna from Ostrowa Mazowiecka compassion and paying attention to the needs of others, in order to leave behind unpleasant thoughts and grudges and focus more on others.

The Sisters of the Order of Nurses Serving the Sick also joined the pilgrimage. Yesterday, on Saturday, they experienced their annual day of recollection, during which they could listen to several conferences. As Sr. Paula Narożna, chairwoman of the Commission of Sisters of the Order of Nurses, said, the topics of the lectures were selected so that the participants could develop spiritually, grow emotionally, become aware of their own needs and those of their charges, but also find fulfillment in giving themselves to those in need.

As an image of human activities in the health service for the Church, figures who remain an inspiration to this day were recalled during the pilgrimage, such as: Blessed Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, chaplain of the Health Service, Stanisława Leszczyńska, a midwife from Auschwitz, and Hanna Chrzanowska, a nurse thanks to whose efforts the custom of celebrating Holy Mass in a sick person’s home and visiting the sick as part of pastoral visits became popular, as well as the “Nurse’s Examination of Conscience”.

Throughout the pilgrimage, the gathered were accompanied by the relics of Blessed Sister Ewa Noiszewska, a doctor and teacher, shot in 1942 for saving Jews, and Blessed Sister Marta Wiecka, who, replacing a designated employee, undertook to disinfect the hospital room where a woman was lying sick with typhus. Unfortunately, during these activities she herself was infected and died.