Encouraged by the Provincial Zbigniew Bogacz, I give you heartfelt greetings and send you this letter to inform you of the joyful news that as of March 23, 2000, in the Chapel of the Madonna of Perpetual Succor, in the Collegium Medicum Pediatric Clinic of the Jagellonica University of Cracow, the Holy Sacrament is exposed 24 hours a day. Permission for this was signed by the auxiliary bishop Msgr. Kazimierz Nycz (Metropolitan Curia of Cracow, March 23, 2000; n. 779/200). The exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament for the entire day had already been happening since August 26, 1996 (permit issued by the Metropolitan Curia of Cracow, n. 151/96).

Thus I have fulfilled your request, Father General (at least this is how I understood the desire expressed by you during your visit to Poland in 1999), that in at least one house or place where the Dehonian Fathers work, perpetual adoration should be established.

I have to write that from the moment I entered the Novitiate my dream was to discover Jesus in the Holy Sacrament and in the hearts of needy people: the sick, the abandoned and the poor. The Good Lord has helped me to fulfill my dreams, because for the last 7 years I have been taking care of sick fathers and religious brethren (many of whom died in my arms). It was they, with their humility and courage, poverty and death, who taught me what the true love of God is and how the result of it is manifested in religious life. When I asked myself - Am I not making a mistake serving the sick of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart? Is this one of the many roads of reparation indicated by the Father Founder? - It was precisely those sick who gave me the strength and the courage to make new efforts.

Father General, I have succeeded in fulfilling the wish of the Father Founder concerning the house of adoration. The hospital chapel, which has been offered to our Congregation for as long as the clinic exists, is something more than a house, because it is also open to the people. 24 hours a day children with serious illnesses come, the parents are desperate because of their dying children; the doctors, the nurses, the students, the nuns, the priests, they all come. When Jesus is left alone in the chapel the moments are very brief, almost like He is taking a little pause for rest.

Jesus, together with his Mother in the icon of the Madonna of Perpetual Succor, brings salvation and comfort to the needy in those most difficult moments of life and death. The requests addressed to Jesus through his Mother are written down in notebooks that have been left there for that purpose. Some requests are shattering... Worship of the Eucharist in the clinic is alive and not forced. During one year communion is given 80,000 times, the sacrament for the sick is administered to approximately 1,000 people; I have administered liturgical baptism to approximately 130 children. After the 2:30 Holy Mass is celebrated there is always the traditional adoration during which all present say the act of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, "Behold the Heart...".

The bishops of Cracow recognize that this "sanctuary of suffering" has a particular role. Every year they visit the chapel and the sick children 4 or 5 times. For 21 years Cardinal Franciszek Macharski has made a Christmas visit to the clinic sometime during the season.

The Provincial Superiors, Fr. Józef Gawel and Fr. Zbigniew Bogacz have also visited the clinic.

For 10 years the students of our Seminary in Stadniki have volunteered their time and during their summer vacation they work at the clinic as simple servants. For the last two years the Seminarians of the Diocesan Seminary of Cracow and of Sosnowiec have also joined them (the latter perform their training as deacons, which lasts for six months, in the clinic).

Father General, alongside the development of Eucharistic Worship there is also the work of formation for the sanitation employees (this has been going on for 3 years in the Catholic Action Clinic - in this task our Father Grzegorz Pi_tek, Director of S.C.J. Edizioni, also gives me a hand). I would also like to provide you with some information on the Lenten spiritual exercises (of 6 days duration) and those of Advent (3 days), which have already become a fixed tradition. Approximately 1000 people participate. So far the spiritual exercises have been directed by our Fathers (Fr. Wies_aw Pietrzak, Fr. Stanis_aw Sta_czyk, Fr. Walerian Swoboda, Fr. Kazimierz Kowalczyk). Catholic Action collaborates closely with the S.C.J. publishing house (the following books were published for the sick: In Spite of Hope; The Tears of God; Waiting; Despised). A big book of prayers is being prepared.

Many Catholic magazines are distributed in the clinic, including those published by our Province; among others: Arise, and The Time of the Heart. Every month we distribute approximately 1,700 magazines.

I must add that a great deal of merit, for the development of the worship of the Sacred Heart in the clinic, is due to Fr. Adam W_och, S.C.J. and the way he has emphasized, through his work for "The S.C.J. Informer" in the Polish Province, the value and the need to commit oneself to the expansion of our spirituality. And it is also due to Fr. Andrzej Sawulski, S.C.J. because of his articles published in the weekly magazine "The Sunday Guest".

There is also an organization of Boy Scouts ("Scauting - harcerstwo") in the clinic. They play a part in local ministry activity. The purpose of this organization is to work with children suffering from leukemia and to work for their psychological rehabilitation. There are 140 members in "Scauting".

I would like to end this letter by presenting the clinic itself. Its full name is The Polish-American Pediatric Institute in the Collegium Medicum of Jagellonica University. It was built in 1965, thanks to the aid of the Poles of America. The President of the USA has visited it twice. 1,700 people work in the clinic as sanitation employees, there are approximately 600 patients (25% of which are children suffering from cancer and leukemia). The outpatient department is capable of coping with approximately 1,500 patients a day. In August 1991 the clinic was visited by the Holy Father, John Paul II, who in the 1960s, during his pastoral visit to this area, had laid out the preliminary concepts of this clinic.