In the village of Puńsk (Punskas), in the Suwałki region, on the border between Poland and Lithuania, parish missions in Polish and Lithuanian were held conducted jointly by the Redemptorists of the Warsaw Province and the Bratislava-Prague Province from 25 May to 1 June 2025.
Puńsk is located within the borders of Poland, but more than 80% of the inhabitants are Lithuanians and speak their language on a daily basis. Puńsk is an important cultural center for Lithuanians in Poland. The Community of Lithuanians in Poland, the Lithuanian Cultural Center and the Lithuanian-language secondary school are active here.
For this reason, responding to the invitation of the parish priest, Fr. Andrzej Opanowski, missionaries who spoke Lithuanian were needed to carry out missions in the parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Puńsk. Fathers Rastislav Dluhý and Peter Hertel, Slovak brothers who have been working in Kaunas (Lithuania) since 2018, came to help.
Sermons and lectures were held for each language group in the parish church in Puńsk and in the chapel in Vidughiery. Fathers Łukasz Baran and Andrzej Mikuć preached for the Polish-speaking faithful, while Father Rastislav Dluhý and Father Peter Hertel preached for the Lithuanians. The missionary program also included common parts, among them the evening Marian devotions and the Way of the Cross. These services, held in Lithuanian and Polish, were attended by a large number of parishioners every day.
An important element of the mission in Puńsk was to reach as many inhabitants as possible. For this reason, missionaries, together with volunteers from Kaunas, conducted evangelization meetings for children and young people in primary and secondary schools. During the mission, a meeting with the mayor and staff of the Puńsk municipality was also held at the municipal office.
These were the first joint sacred missions of the Redemptorists of the two provinces in this area with a Lithuanian and Polish population. The good fruits of the missionary ministry will certainly contribute to further Polish-Slovak cooperation in preaching itinerant missions and retreats in Poland and Lithuania.
Fr. Łukasz Baran, CSsR.
photo: Fr Rastislav Dluhý CSsR, Fr Andrzej Opanowski.
