Nov 21, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Catholics in Montana have taken up the cause for canonization of a beloved Polish priest, who came to them after years in Nazi prison camps.
Msgr. Joseph Gluszek came to the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings in 1950 – a survivor of the beatings, starvation and inhuman conditions in Nazi prison camps – and served there for more than a half century.
Msgr. Gluszek died two years ago, one month before his 92nd birthday, after 52 years of ministry in Montana. His friends spanned generations. They included the little children, the elderly, as well as Pope John Paul II.
Remarkably, the cause for canonization is a grassroots movement, led by Lester and Teresa Maleszewski. The Maleszewskis were not the monsignor’s good friends, but they respect his life as a servant of God, they told the Great Falls Tribune.