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Between 3 and 4 November 2006 our Society celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its activity. The Society was registered in Wroclaw on 2 November 1981, and the first hostel was opened on Christmas Eve of 1981 in a barrack at 103 Lotnicza Street. Brother Jerzy Marszalkowicz lived there with 11 homeless people as their carer. The Caritas did not act at that time, suspended by government in 1950 and our Society was the only independent charity. Its idea was spreading and the circles in Warsaw, Lublin, Poznań, Kielce were created.
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The Friday ceremonial concert in the beautifully restored Wroclaw Opera attracted about 400 guests – the representatives of 44 circles from all over the country, friends of the Society from Wroclaw and the representatives of the church and government. There were, among others, His Eminence the Bishop Edward Janiak, Father Mitrat Eugeniusz Cebulski, the Speaker Pawel Wroblewski, President Rafal Dutkiewicz, members of parliament and councillors.
The program of the concert included: - The cantata “St. Jadwiga Slaska” by M. Gasieniec, performed by Wieslaw Ochman, Aleksandra Kubas, Magdalena Czwojda, Cantores Minores Wratislavienses and the Leopoldinum Orchestra conducted by T. Zathey.
- Marek Balata and his quintet’s performance comprising his own music to the words by John Paul II, the songs by Niemen and others.
- In the official part the awards were given by the authorities of the Society and a short documentary film about the Society was shown.
On Saturday His Eminence the Archbishop Marian Golebiewski celebrated in a Wroclaw cathedral a thanksgiving Mass for the Society, its charges and benefactors. “It is a great work. Its beginnings are very modest. It started from Brother Jerzy, from the first 11 homeless, from a barrack, and then it expanded by some miracle into a network of different seats in 14 provinces” – said the Archbishop of Wroclaw in his homily. At the end of the holy mass Archbishop Marian Golebiewski gave papal award Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice to Bohdan Aniszczyk, Ph.D., the President of the Society. 
At the meeting in a lecture theatre of PWT (Papal Theological Faculty) the representatives of the circles listened to the memories of the beginnings of the Society yet they also thought about the future. An incentive to reflection was a presentation of the strategy of the society for the years 2006-2015 and a lecture by His Eminence the Bishop Andrzej Siemieniewski “Deus Caritas est – the work of mercy in the centre of life of the Church.” A short concert of the well-known Orthodox chamber choir OKTOICH was the attraction of the meeting. In the evening the participants of the celebration heard a recital of Katarzyna Groniec including the songs from her newest album “Emigrant” and a satirist Krzysztof Piasecki’s performance in the Polish Theatre. That event also attracted many spectators. |
