News from the Tyniec Abbey in Poland, and it’s not good (translated from Polish by Google):

Today, December 28, before 5:00 p.m., Fr. Włodzimierz Zatorski, a monk of the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec, died.

Father Włodzimierz was born on June 27, 1953 in Czechowice-Dziedzice. After graduating from high school in 1972, he began studies at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice. Repressed for his opposition activities, in 1976 he spent over six months in prison and was suspended as a student. He graduated from the Jagiellonian University in 1980 with a master’s degree in physics. Immediately afterwards he joined the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec; He took the habit on August 23, 1980, and made his first monastic vows on August 26, 1981. On the feast of St. Benedict made solemn profession in 1984 and was ordained a priest on May 9, 1987.

Founder and longtime director of TYNIEC of the Benedictine Publishing House and initiator of many publishing series appearing until today. Among the numerous tasks entrusted to him in the monastery was the office of prior, performed by him in 2005-2009. As a novice master between 2010 and 2013, he formed many monks for monastic life. In 2011 he stayed in a hermitage in Masuria and in a Benedictine abbey in Jerusalem.

In the years 2013-2019 he took care of the monastery’s financial affairs as the steward of the abbey. The deserving prefect of the Tyniec Oblates, he held this function from 2002 to 2019, contributing to the significant development of this community and caring for the formation of all lay people who wanted to live according to the Rule of St. Benedict in the world.

Author of many books, respected preacher, retreatist and spiritual director, recently involved in the activities of the Benedict Option Foundation; for many a close friend and spiritual father. In 2012

He stayed in the hospital from December 9, when he developed breathing difficulties. There, he was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The funeral will be held on Saturday, January 2 at 11:30 in the Benedictine Abbey church in Tyniec. Due to the epidemic threat still present, we appeal for remote participation in the Holy Mass. funeral via Tyniec.tv or YouTube channel . We ask everyone to pray for our Confrere, that our Savior will accept him to His glory.

Father Zatorski was deeply interested in The Benedict Option, and indeed established a foundation in Poland to support a Benedict Option community. He was its spiritual director. Here is something from the Opcja Benedykta website:

WHO WE ARE

We have families, circles of friends and acquaintances. Like everyone. We are senior and ordinary employees, we work in schools, offices, and public institutions. We run businesses. Among us, there are retired people who have the willingness and the time to share their knowledge and experience. Among our many obligations, we try to find the time and place for prayer and quiet, for reflecting on God’s Word, and for Christian meditation.

In the “Benedict Option” Foundation we wish to build a culture of living in community. We base ourselves on what is important for us in life: the Benedictine Ordo et Pax, respect for humankind and nature, trust, responsibility, balance between work and rest. We wish to offer workshops and retreats for spiritual and personal development to all who are searching for meaning in life.  We wish to create a space for believers and seekers. We wish to serve as a place in which peace and tranquillity prevail, where the rhythm of the day is marked by the Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina (spiritual reading) and meditation.

We have chosen the region of Mazury, on the edge of the Pisz Forest, far from tourist routes. Here we are building our Centre and hermitage.

 

THE IDEA BEHIND THE FOUNDATION

The idea of a community was born 30 years ago in the heart of a Benedictine monk, Fr. Włodzimierz Zatorski.  It was he who inspired lay people who went to Tyniec for retreats and workshops.

Like St. Benedict, we wish for “God to be worshipped in everything”: at work and at home, in daily duties and in leisure, and  in encounters with other people. The wisdom  written down in the Rule of St. Benedict would appear to be a timeless remedy for the maladies of today’s world. It is a list of simple truths, tested both in lay and monastic life. They are universal laws governing people’s spiritual life. The Rule was written 1,500 years ago and was a response to cultural decline. Today we are similarly experiencing a crisis of faith and spirituality, a crisis of being and of mutual relations.  This is happening because basic laws of life itself are being broken. The building of communities is a response to these challenges, as was said half a century ago by the Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.

Because ever more people are struggling with basic questions relating to the meaning of life, happiness, and faith, we therefore see profound sense in creating a “Benedict Option” community. It attempts to build on tried and tested laws relating to life, because no matter  what we think up, even if it seems to us to be the noblest, most excellent idea, and then try to do it ourselves without divine guidance, it will become fruitless and lack life. Therefore the first and most essential thing is for us to hear God’s word, directed to us. Only then, by responding to it, can we do anything which builds us up and roots us in truth and in life.

What a man the monk Father Zatorski was! When I met him at Tyniec, others told me afterward that he is known all over Poland for his spiritual wisdom. And now he has gone to be with God, far too soon for us all, especially for his beloved Poland, which is suffering so much from the loss of faith.

Now that he’s gone, I can tell you that it was Father Zatorski who confirmed for me at Tyniec what young Catholics in Warsaw and at a conference in Tyniec were telling me: that Poland is ten, maybe twenty, years from turning into Ireland — a former Catholic stronghold where the faith has disappeared seemingly overnight. We were talking in a meeting room at the Tyniec monastery. I told the monk that this was so difficult for me to accept, because Poland has always been to my mind a bastion of faith. Well, he said, it’s a hard truth, but it’s true.

Why is this happening? I asked him. Father Zatorski’s English was not strong, but he thought for a moment, and said the word, “Vainglory.” Through the translator, he explained to me that the Polish institutional church was so pridefully focused on itself that it missed the decay of the faith in broader Polish society, and has responded badly to the challenge. This was one reason he was at the time (we met on July 14, 2019) planning to start a Benedict Option retreat center and community.

Any reader of this blog who is moved by Father Zatorski’s life and death, or who loves Poland and wants to help preserve the faith there, please consider donating something in his memory to the Opcja Benedykta Foundation in his memory. 

Father Zatorski had earned a good retirement. But despite his age, he did not rest. He read the signs of the times, and acted to serve God and Poland by doing something bold and new. I thank God for his life, and am confident that we have gained a powerful intercessor.