Blessing of the bikes at Sts. Peter and Paul church

YOUNGSTOWN — In heaven there is no beer, but there are polkas and motorcycles at church.

Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church combined both in a joyous celebration Saturday.

“You need to play, and you need to be joyful,” said the Rev. Joseph Rudjak after celebrating a polka mass and then blessing motorcycles in the parking lot of the Covington Street church.

Father Rudjak, the church pastor, holds four masses a year that feature the unmistakable beat of polka music. The six-member John Lapinski Band led the congregation in a series of upbeat songs at the 4 p.m. mass.

That’s the point of the polka, Father Rudjak said in his homily.

The Croatian people who founded Sts. Peter and Paul in 1911 came to this country and worked hard and dangerous jobs in mines and steel mills, he said. Many were seriously injured or killed.

“They danced the polka and trampled death into the ground,” Father Rudjak said.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator and vindy.com