From the Web editor:

Our member, friends of the Foundation and all those who promote mutual understanding and reconciliation among Christians and Jews mourn the death of Fr Stanislaw Musiał

Judaica Foundation - Center for Jewish Culture in Kazimierz, Cracow

Stanisław Musiał SJ

of blessed memory

born May 1st, 1938, in Łososina Górna
died March 5th, 2004, in Cracow.

Our Friend, a wise and good man,
the author of many important writings
devoted to reconciliation between Poles and Jews,
a member of the Judaica Foundation - Center for Jewish Culture Board

has departed too soon, leaving us in grief

His Friends

Council Mourns the Death of Fr. Stanislaw Musial, SJ

March 8, 2004 - Washington, DC

Members and friends of the National Polish-American-Jewish American Council were deeply saddened by the passing of Fr. Stanislaw Musial, SJ, a pioneer and leader of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and Polish Jewish reconciliation.

Fr. Musial was a man of uncommon wisdom, compassion and courage. He was a friend to the Council and to many of its members who found strength in his example.

Born on May 1, 1938 in Łososinie Górnej, Poland, Fr. Stanislaw Musial entered the Starej Wsi monastic order in 1952. He studied philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus in Krakow and theology at the Bobolanum Theological Facultym, as well as in Rome in Munich. He was ordained as priest in 1963.

A long-time member of editorial board of Poland's Tygodnik Powszechny, he also directed Krakow's Apostleship of Prayer Publishing House in the years immediately following the Solidarity revolution in Poland. He wrote numerous articles in Gazeta Wyborcza, Midrasz, and Polin on anti-Semitism, Catholic-Jewish relations, and issues between Poland and world Jewry.

As a member of the Episcopal Commission for Dialog with Judaism from the time of its creation in 1986 until 1997, Fr. Musial played a key role in organizing and facilitating a Geneva meeting among international Catholic and Jewish leaders that led to a 1987 agreement resolving the conflict over the Carmelite Convent at Auschwitz. He was one of the strongest and most forthright voices in the Polish Catholic Church for tolerance and mutual understanding, and was intensely devoted to combating anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

Active in numerous academic and human rights forums, Fr. Musial was a member of the board of the Geneva-based United Nations Watch and Krakow's Judaica Foundation - Center for Jewish Culture, as well as closely involved with the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim.

Fr. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, PhD, founding member and honorary co-chairman of the Council and president of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), said today: "Fr. Musial was a genuine pioneer in Christian-Jewish relations in Poland and beyond. He spoke to issues in the dialogue with honesty and integrity. He challenged us all to confront the history of anti-Semitism. We shall miss his voice which was silenced far too soon."

For more information, please contact Guy Billauer at 202-785-4200 or mail@npajac.org