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Blejwas - American Polonia and Września

Another aspect of American Polonia role as an intermediary between Poland and America were the public commemorations of Polish patriotic anniversaries. The constitution of the Polish Roman Catholic Union encouraged annual commemorations of the 1830 Insurrection in November and of the 1863 Uprising in January. In 1891 Polonia celebrated the centennial of the Constitution of May 3^rd on a national scalę. The annual commemoration of these events became an integral element of community ritual. Public commemorations were the occasion to educate both the American public and the immigrant community about Poland's history and culture.

There were also domestic issues that occupied Polonia’s leadership. One critical issue at the tum of the last century was the absence of Polish representation in the Roman Catholic Church’s episcopal hierarchy. Another was the efforts of the American Catholic bishops, the majority of whom were Irish or German, to promote the Americanization of the numerous immigrant groups now crowding within diocesan jurisdictions. These issues came together at the second Polish Catholic Congress that was convened in Buffalo September 24 - 26, 1901. Although there were morę than one million Polish Catholics in the United States and over 500 Polish priests ministering to them, no Pole had been appointed either bishop or auxiliary bishop. Furthermore, faced with a polyglot faithful, some American bishops were encouraging, as a practical matter, greater use of English in churches and parish schools. When in 1900 Bishops Frederick Eis of Marąuette and Sebastian Messmer of Green Bay, Wisconsin, both of German origin, ordered that sermons be in English at least twice monthly in diocesan churches, Polish Americans protested. They misunderstood the intent and extend of the order, which was not directed against any national group and was intended to assure that the younger, English-speaking generation could attend English-language services.¹⁵ Nevertheless, many perceived the order as undermining the Polishness [Polskość] that the parish and school were established to maintain. Americanization was equated with denationalization.

The reasons for convoking a congress were precisely stated the organizing commitee. The American Poles now numbered over a million individuals and possessed an expanding organizational infrastructure. One no longer spoke of Poles in America but of American Polonia as an organized, distinct nationality. However, the original organizations were no longer adeąuate “if we wish to preserve our individuality, our national distinctness” [jeżeli chcemy zachować naszą indywidualność, naszą odrębność narodową]. Polonia could exist for a long time as a distinct nationality without becoming submerged by Americanism, but its enemies wanted to denationalize as rapidly as possible. “Here and there assaults have begun on our Polish language, on our national distinctiveness” [To i owdzie poczęto robić już zamachy na nasz polski język, na naszą odrębność narodową], These attacks prompted Poles to put aside differences and “to think not only of defense but also about the permanent establishment of our existence as Poles in America” [myśleć nietylko o obronie, ale i trwałem ustaleniu naszego istnienia, jako Polaków na amerykańskiej ziemi]. Thus parishes, organizations, societies, clergy and representatives of the Polish American press were invited to reflect under the slogan of “God and Country” [Bóg i Ojczyzną].¹⁶

¹⁵    Anthony J. Kuzniewski, Faith and Falherland. The Polish Church War in Wisconsin, 1896 - 1918 (Notre Damę, IN: University of Notre Damę Press, 1980), 44-5.

¹⁶    “Program Kongresu”, Ameryka, 6 lipiec 1902.

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