Exactly half a century ago, the communist authorities of the Polish People’s Republic sent them to a special military unit in Bartoszyce, hoping that those young seminarians would abandon the path to the priesthood. But they did not bend; their vocation grew stronger, they became priests, and they serve the Church to this day. These days in Rome, they thanked God for the gift of their vocation and priesthood. The focal point of their visit was Holy Mass at the tomb of Saint John Paul II, where they appeared with a small sign reading: Seminarians – Soldiers, JW 4413, 1976 Bartoszyce (JW stands for Jednostka Wojskowa, meaning Military Unit – W.R.).

The year 1976 in Poland: we are in the period of the communist regime. Contrary to the agreement between the State and the Church, the communist authorities decided to make seminary students carry out their two-year mandatory military service instead of postponing it. As General Jaruzelski wrote in one of the guidelines, enlistment in the army was considered a “measure of repression.” For the seminarians, three special military units were created in Szczecin-Podjuchy, Brzeg, and Bartoszyce.

The commanders’ goal was not to train soldiers for combat, but rather to do everything possible to make them abandon the road to the priesthood. They were, therefore, re-education camps. The goal was to break the clerics physically and mentally. Alarms were often sounded at night. Exhausting marches were imposed. They were capable of giving a private the order to stand at attention all night with all his full march gear on.

There were also other forms of persuasion. The clerics were forced to watch hours of Soviet propaganda films or listen to Marxist lectures on the harmfulness of religion. They isolated them from their environment, forbade reading, prayer, and participation in religious services. Attempts were made to involve them in public communist cultural and educational activities. In their free time, parties with girls, dancing, and alcohol were organized, to which the seminarians were invited. Easy future careers were promised if they agreed to leave the seminary.

In the autumn of 1976, 64 seminarians arrived in Bartoszyce to begin their military service. Two of them resigned while still in the army, but 62 left the military unit still as seminarians. In the end, more than 46 of them became priests, and fourteen of them came to Rome on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving. With their pilgrimage, they did not want to recall an event from half a century ago, but above all to give thanks for having remained faithful to their vocation despite the pressure from the communist regime. One of them is the current pastor of the pontifical parish of Saint Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo, Father Tadeusz Rozmus. Advertisement.

It must be said that, by a providential coincidence, the seminarians finished their military service in the autumn of 1978, almost at the same time as the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła as Pope. For this reason too, the celebration of Holy Mass at the tomb of Saint John Paul II held a special meaning for them.