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April 3, 2005
Cedar's 'Little Poland' parish reflects on pope's life and timesPolish families feel kinship with pontiffByRecord-Eagle staff writer CEDAR -- Holy Rosary Parish displays hints throughout its ornate interior of the Polish hands that built it. Parishioners sing Polish Christmas carols and most of the priests who have served this congregation of 200 families have Polish surnames. Every summer, this Leelanau County community caps its annual Cedar Polka Fest with a polka Mass. A Polish inscription in the arch above the altar translates to: "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Pray for Us." Many in Cedar prayed for Pope John Paul II, the Polish-born pontiff whose life and legacy are celebrated in this small town nicknamed "Little Poland." "When you see him go to his homeland in Poland and see how people respond it just runs a chill right up your back," said Ray Pleva, a Cedar resident who graduated from the now-closed Holy Rosary High School in 1960. "It is the pride of having the pope from your nationality, but he traveled and he touched so many lives, and it is just too bad that you can't see more of that in these countries where there is war going on," Pleva said. The history of Holy Rosary reflects the persistence of the Polish people who hauled fieldstone for the foundation of the parish. Local stonemasons and carpenters worked through 1921-22 to complete the church. "A lot of the Polish men were great carpenters, builders and masons," said Lucia Novak, who grew up in Cedar and researched her Polish roots. Polish families first settled in the area in the early 1870s and traveled here from Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Toledo, Novak said. Many were poor, but hard-working; devout of faith, but previously persecuted for their beliefs. "What I found, they were of the lower class, the servants and the peasants, they lived and worked off the land -- that's all they had -- for them to come to America and have this opportunity, and for freedom of religion," Novak said. The history of religious persecution, suffered in the homeland, made Polish settlers' Catholic faith all the more important, Novak said. They gave generously to build Holy Rosary, she said. "We came here for freedom of religion," Novak said. "When I hear about what they gave to start ... not just that parish, I mean, they gave their last dime to the church, and they had such strong faith." Many of the names of these first families, written in Polish on cemetery stones and recorded in church documents, are still familiar, said Donna Peterson, who works in the Holy Rosary office. "So many of the last names are the same," she said. Peterson, who is part-Polish, remembers when the pope was elected. "Normally, most people might see two popes in their lifetime," she said. Polish parishioners of Holy Rosary probably do feel an added connection to the pope because of their shared heritage, Peterson said. Also, "the pope has a real devotion to the Rosary," significant to members of Holy Rosary, she said. Novak visited Poland twice and on the first tour made stops at sites made special by the pope's association. "I saw his place in 1985, both his home and the church that he attended and was an altar boy," she said. Having a Polish pope, she said, "was big, very big, especially, I know, for my grandparents." Pleva traveled to see the pope when the pontiff visited the Pontiac Silverdome. "It is something that you don't forget ... ," he said. "It doesn't change the world, but it certainly changes your life on how you feel about things."
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