A new Redemptorist School of Evangelization has been established in Warsaw, in the Church of St. Benno, where St. Clement Hofbauer worked more than 200 years ago. The evangelizing community has been meeting there for a long time and has perceived the possibility and the need to proclaim the Good News by joining the global family of the St. Andrew Schools of Evangelization (SESA).
From 7 to 10 November 2024, the 4th European SESA Seminar on the theme “Forming new leaders” was held in Łódź, Poland. The special guest of the Seminar was José H. Prado Flores, creator of the training programme of the St. Andrew’s School of Evangelization. Also present were Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Bishop Artur Ważny, Bishop Piotr Wawrzynek, Bishop Zbigniew Wołkowicz and Fr. Krzysztof Czerwionka, head of the SESA circles in Poland. The meeting was attended by the leaders of the schools of evangelization from Poland, Hungary, France, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine, Ireland, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
The seminar was divided into two parts. The first addressed the current challenges of the evangelization of the Church. José H. Prado Flores’ lecture explored the directions of work, methods of evangelization and the need for constant openness to the Holy Spirit. Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, however, spoke about the challenges of the Church, inspired by the recently concluded Synod of Bishops on synodality.
The first day concluded with the Eucharist, during which the Cardinal stressed the need for a relational conversion, that is, to focus more on people than on things and the law. The Eucharist was followed by a brief synodal exchange between the seminar participants.
The second part of the seminar was dedicated to the training of new leaders. Participants took part in the “Joshua” course, which illustrates the characteristics of a good leader and how to train his followers.
At the end of the seminar, a European evening was held, where foreign guests shared their SESA experiences. This was followed by a joint celebration of the 30th anniversary of SESA Poland.
During the meeting, three more schools signed an agreement with SESA Poland. One of them is the Mother of Perpetual Help School of Evangelization, located in the church of St. Benno in Warsaw.
The beginnings of the school of evangelization of the Redemptorist Church in Warsaw date back to September 2020, when the Sursum Corda school in Krakow held the first new life evangelization course in the parish of St. Klemens Hofbauer in Warsaw. A new evangelization community will soon be born there, with Fr. Paweł Drobot CSsR as its parish priest.
When the project for the formation of missionary disciples “Together in Mission” was born, coordinated by the Secretariat for the Shared Mission of the Redemptorist Province of Warsaw, people from this environment joined the proposed training. In 2023, the headquarters of the community moved to the Rectoral Church of St. Benno in Warsaw. Currently the community consists of 12 people who are committed to permanent cooperation in the work of evangelization.
During the European Seminar of SESA, the Redemptorist circles were represented by members of the schools of evangelization such as St. John the Beloved Disciple from Toruń, Blessed Kasper Stanggassinger from Grodno, St. Alphonsus Liguori from Wrocław. Also present were people from the College of San Marco, run by the community of Galilee, which collaborates with the Redemptorist parishes of Ukraine and Denmark.
Fr. Paweł Drobot CSsR, Varsovia
(source: www.redemptor.pl)
