Tadeusz Rusnak

* 1953

  • "The atmosphere was to be honest very solemn as everyone felt the signifcance of the events taking place and the expectations and thus the Holy Mass in the intention of the success of the negotiations, right. I don't remember the sermon any more of father Orzechowski, I really don't. All I remember were crowds of people who came to the Holy Mass. Nothing else. (...) Since I was sort of isolated from the city, due to the fact that as a deacon I had my duties to fulfill in the parish, I didn't always know what was going on downtown. Most probably I heard various bits and pieces of stories but my reaction could not have been different. I could not as a priest or a deacon engage directly, but during the Holy Mass-that was exactly my place."

  • "First of all, participation in the Holy Mass was unique. They participated. Noone was there accidentally, that you just stand and think of something else. I guess that the greatest impression, since father Orzechowski speaks very well and knows how to call a spade a spade. The sermon was the most important at that very moment for these people. Silence and applause, these are the signs of this engagement. People were hungry for the truth, for the Word. I remember, I gave a sermon at Zabobrze, walking for catechesis there, after which I was running straight back to the church as it was high time and then I heard someone whispering: " Father do tell them, please do tell them". These communists. " And the priest told them". So people expected the priest to show them, the communists, but he then was left alone wasn't he."

  • "Maybe I was lucky to be here, on the apprenticeship in Wrocław. I could have ended up on an apprenticeship somewhere far from Wrocław. My diaconal apprenticeship took place at St. Maurice, in the parish in the city centre . And when we found out, I'm not sure how anymore and from whom, that father Orzechowski is supposed to give Holy Mass, we sort of got together. That is all the lads who also had an apprenticeship in Wrocław, a diaconal one. Here, I have a photo of these guys. This one is, as I wrote here: Józef Hałka-these days he is back a secular man, father Stanisław Orzechowski, Adam Prażak, deacon-today already a vicar, parish priest and deacon Eugeniusz Jacyszyn. And we are servicing this Holy Mass with father Orzechowski who was our professor at the seminary, he lectured in pastoral theology."

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    Żerniki Wrocławskie, Polska, 16.12.2015

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The ministry of the need of the moment and heart

Priest Tadeusz Rusnak, 2015
Priest Tadeusz Rusnak, 2015
photo: Ośrodek "Pamięć i Przyszłość"

Tadeusz Rusnak, catholic priest, born on the 15th of February 1953 in Siedlęcin, Jeleniogórski poviat. Brought up in a  rural family. During his high school years he trained athletics, mainly running. Having graduated from the Mechanics Technical School in Jelenia Góra he commenced studies in Wrocław at the former Agricultural University. Within the capital city of Lower Silesia he was a member of a well-known  academic chaplaincy called “Pod Czwórką”. Under the influence of their chaplain, Fr. Aleksander Zienkiewicz he decided to join the Seminary in Wrocław. In 1980 in August he carried out holiday diaconal apprenticeship in St. Maurice’s parish  located in the centre of Wrocław. Inspired by an immediate need he decided to come to the Holy Mass celebrated at the Grabiszyński Depot. He also participated in other Masses during those days, ie. in Pafawag. A year later he was ordained to the Priesthood and directed to Jelenia Góra to the parish of St.  Wojciech. He cooperated there with the Jeleniogórska Solidarity and local opposition. He organized a Mass for Fatherland, distributed tissue paper, samizdats and he contributed to the creation of underground “Teatr 44”. In 1986 he moved to Wrocław to the parish of St. Maximilian. Later he served at the Wrocław Ołtaszyn, Strzelce near Namysłów, University church in Wrocław and in Żerniki Wrocławskie where he remains to date.