Priest flown into Limerick from Poland every week to say Polish Mass

A PRIEST is being flown into Limerick from Poland once a month to celebrate Mass for the huge influx of Polish immigrants coming to the Mid-West.

It is now estimated there are more than 5,000 Polish nationals in the greater Limerick area alone.

Fr Seamus Enright, CSsR of Mount St Alphonsus Redemptorist church, said: “We bring over a priest from our Order in Poland to celebrate Mass on the last Sunday of the month. About 500 members of the Polish community attend the Mass and the numbers are growing each month.”

He said up to 1,500 Polish Catholics attended the Mass in Polish at Easter.

And the Redemptorists have decided to have a mini Polish Novena to coincide with the annual Solemn Novena which commences on June 16.

The Solemn Novena attracts up to 12,000 worshippers on each of its nine days.

Fr Enright said: “This year we will have the Solemn Novena in Mount St Alphonsus and we are having a novena for our Polish community in a church in St Clements College next to the monastery. A polish Redemptorist, Fr Marek Kotynski will preach at the two daily sessions at the Polish novena which will be held at 6pm and 9pm.”

Flights between Shannon and Warsaw made the Mid-West a huge attraction for Polish workers.

A Redemptorist, Fr Sean Lawlor, CSsR who spent many years in Brazil, is now visiting parishes which have sizeable Brazilian communities to say Mass.