CATHOLICISM Healing from pastor's slaying, church is designated a shrine

The Rev. William Gulas of St. Stanislaus Church was killed in the rectory in 2002.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- At age 14, before she even told her parents she wanted to become a nun, Jane went inside St. Stanislaus Church to get some divine help.
Looking up to the highest point on the high altar, above the carved image of Mary, above the statues of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, she asked for the intercession of St. Stanislaus, the Polish martyr, looking down over the congregation with one arm holding a staff and the other raised in greeting.
"I spoke to God, who is first, and then Stash -- I call him 'Stash' -- you'd better help me because this is what I want to do," she said.
A "great peace" overcame her, and she was confirmed in her decision. Not only did she become a nun, but in 1985 she returned to St. Stanislaus to teach.
Today, Sister Jane Frances, 64, will be among those celebrating one of the most important moments in the life of any Catholic parish -- but one of the highest honors for a Polish church -- the designation of St. Stanislaus as a shrine church.
It is a remarkable comeback story for a congregation that 18 months ago was nearly immobilized with grief over the brutal slaying of its pastor.
Visiting bishop
Bishop Ryszard Karpinski, auxiliary bishop of Lublin, Poland, will be the celebrant for the Mass designating the church a shrine, which church law recognizes as a sacred place to which members of the faithful make pilgrimage for a special reason of piety.
The service will feature a procession with a relic of St. Stanislaus given to the parish during a visit in 1969 by Pope John Paul II, then a Polish cardinal.
For years, East Siders informally called St. Stanislaus the cathedral of Cleveland's Slavic Village. Busloads of tourists already come to view the Gothic Revival church constructed in the shape of a cross.
But Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla's decision to designate St. Stanislaus a shrine church is expected to greatly increase the number of visitors from throughout the country.
Traditional patron
In almost every sizable Polish community, from the steel towns of Pennsylvania to the manufacturing cities of the Midwest, the first Polish Catholic church in each city traditionally has been named after St. Stanislaus, the patron saint of Poland. But this will be the first shrine church in the United States dedicated to St. Stanislaus, said the Rev. Michael Surufka, church pastor.
"We are greatly blessed by this honor," Father Surufka said.
"It really commits us to take the treasure that we've been given, that we've been nurturing, and to make it available to a larger public that is seeking a place of holiness," he said.
The late Bishop Richard Gilmour formed the congregation in 1873. The parish really took off some three years later, when thousands in Poland responded to ads seeking workers for the Newburgh Rolling Mills.
The cornerstone for the current church was laid in 1886, and the building was completed in what once was a potato patch in 1891. By the 1930s, there were 46 nuns teaching some 2,700 pupils in the parish school.
Over the years, more than 125 men and women from the parish chose religious vocations.
Even as many people left for the suburbs, St. Stanislaus has never ceased being a symbol of pride for Polish Catholics in the region. Many still drive in from Euclid, Avon, Medina and other suburbs for services.
Death of pastor
A $1.5 million renovation was completed in 1998. Church members were meeting to discuss how to mark the 750th anniversary of the canonization of St. Stanislaus when tragedy struck in 2002. The Rev. William Gulas, the pastor, was murdered in the rectory by a religious brother who worked at the church.
The crime was almost unthinkable.
There was a sense that the church was in danger of losing some of the energy that always made it a major force in the neighborhood, where it serves some 1,500 families and continues to educate nearly 1,000 children from Head Start to high school.
Father Surufka said the congregation had to make a choice, to wither or get stronger.
The parish chose to do something big and appealed to the bishop to make St. Stanislaus a shrine church. Today, their goal will become a reality.
"We defy all the expectations," Father Surufka said. "We really are a resurrection church."
Abundant imagery
As the trend in church architecture swung since the 1960s to simpler, more unadorned sanctuaries, parishioners say there is still a place for churches such as St. Stanislaus, which is filled with religious images.
Along with statuary throughout the church, there are 10 statues of saints set within the pews. There are 25 stained-glass windows showing scenes from the slaying of St. Stanislaus to the Nativity, and several murals depicting biblical scenes. There are 220 images alone of angels.
Father Surufka said the experience of entering St. Stanislaus may be overwhelming at first, but all the religious imagery evokes a sense of holiness.
"After a while, you begin to get a feeling you are in the presence of the community of saints, that we're not alone in the cosmos," he said.
Lifelong parishioner Archie Mosinski, 77, puts it this way: "You can't help praying in that church."
And sitting in the pews after a recent early-morning service, Sister Jane Frances can still call forth the same sense of wonder she felt on seeing St. Stanislaus for the first time in 1949 as a 10-year-old girl, just over from Poland.
"The beauty of it struck me so much that I pictured myself really and truly being in heaven with all the statues and saints," she said. "I pictured myself like I am a pilgrim."