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Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 103 (2005): Our Past

Articles

The history of the parish and the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bydgoszcz in 1920-1972

  • Janusz Umiński
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2005.103.5-92  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2005-06-30

Abstract

This article covers the period 1920-1972, when the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Szwederowo quarter of Bydgoszcz was administered by its first two incumbents. Father Jan Konopczyński became Szwederowo's parish priest in February 1920. His appointment coincided with Cardinal Edmund Dalbor's decree which divided Bydgoszcz into four zones of pastoral care (ie. after the Polish authorities had taken over the administration of the city on 20 January 1920, but before the official incorporation of Szwederowo and 17 other municipalities into the City of Bydgoszcz on 1 April 1920). In 1946 Father Konopczyński was appointed Dean of Bydgoszcz and moved to the Church of Blessed Heart of Jesus at Piastowski Square. At Szwederowo his successor was Father Czesław Rólski, who officiated there during the bleak years of Stalinism and whose death in 1972 may have been precipitated by the stress and strain he had suffered while resisting the totalitarian regime. Another reason for adopting this terminus a quem is the fact that the borders of the parish remained unchanged until 19 March 1972. On 13 March 1972 Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński issued a decree which established the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church in the west of Bydgoszcz. The north-western part of the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which included a block of seventeen streets in the housing estate Górzyskowo, were ceded to the new parish. The article reviews the beginnings of the parish, its territory, demographic and denominational structure, the history of the parish church (from construction to the arrangement of its interior) and other buildings owned by the parish. It also looks at the ways in which the clergy in its liturgical and non-liturgical duties, lay servers, the Parish Board, and various parish associations contributed to the creation and development of religious life on the local church level. In the interwar period Szwederowo functioned as a small homeland with the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help playing a major role in integrating the predominantly working-class community and infusing it with a Christian spirit.

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