- Albin Hennequin
- Athanase Gonelli
- Bernard Cunningham
- Denis Ward
- Edward Harrop
- Gerard O'Brien
- Henry Paul
- James Cronly
- John Cooper
- John Spiteri
- Julian Messina
- Lam Vu
- Leonard Busuttil
- Luciano Rocchi
- Paul Hanbridge
- Paul Winter
- Peter Hand
- Robert Stewart
- Romano Franchini
- Stanislaus Dawidowicz
- Tung Nguyen

Stanislaus Dawidowcz, OFM Cap

The funeral of Br Stanislaus Dawidowcz OFM Cap was celebrated in the Church of the Good Shepherd at Plumpton at 3:30pm on Monday 13th September, 1999. Br John Cooper OFM Cap celebrated the Mass and preached the homily. There were many Polish Priests as well as Capuchin friars and lay people present.

After the Mass most people walked up to the friars’ Cemetery where Br Edward Harrop OFM Cap, the Guardian, blessed the grave and committed Br Stan to eternal rest. After the ceremony everyone was invited back to the Polish War Memorial Shrine at Marayong for a meal.

The name of Br Stanislaus Dawidowcz OFM Cap will be enshrined in the Polish War Memorial Chapel along with that of Fr Cassian Wolak OFM Cap who suffered in Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

The following is the funeral homily given by the (then) Provincial Minister Br John Cooper.

We are nearing the end of the most savage century in human history. Never before and hopefully never again, will mankind be so systematically and utterly inhuman.

Today, for the funeral of Br Stanislaus, we see a large group of priests. That is how it should be - the priests gathered together with their people - to offer up to God not just the life of Br Stanislaus but all our lives with their joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. This is especially so as we pass through the dying days of this century, indeed the end of the millennium.

The memories that I want to share with you today, the memories of Br Stanislaus and his sister Mary, here with us, and his two sisters in America, have brought tears to my eyes. They may affect you also, but I believe they need to be shared if we are to understand the brother who lies here before us today.

To lay all things to rest and offer his life to God we need to catch some glimpse of the horror of this Century that has left its mark on the life of our brother Stanislaus. During World War II there were over 1000 Nazi Concentration and Labour Camps in Europe. It is estimated that 12 million people died in these camps. Br Stanislaus and his family are part of this human tragedy.

During the Provincial Assembly of 1998, we were able to assist Br Stan to share the worse memories of his life. He refused to allow us to tape him, but his story is seared into my memory and the memory of those with me that day. I do not know if all of it is true. I only know that for him it was true. His sister Mary has confirmed and clarified some of it, but much for me is obscure.

"My Grandfather," Stan said, "was Jewish and he fell in love with a Polish Catholic girl. They married against their families’ wishes. That’s where the name Dawidowcz (Son of David) comes from."

Mary continued the story: "Our family lived in what is the known as the Ukraine which was taken over by the Russians. My Father was like a district supervisor, but we had to flee because the Ukrainian people began to persecute the Polish living in the Ukraine because they wanted their land back, so we went to Germany.

When the war came our whole family was sent by train to Dachau Concentration Camp, where we were to be gassed and thrown into the ovens. We were in Dachau waiting for three months. The ovens for burning the dead broke down and with the increasing number of people we were again put into cattle trucks and sent to Bavaria to a Labour Camp that had previously been an army camp. Once we were there we were sent out each day to work on the railway and other jobs and brought back at night to the camp.

Eddie (that is Br Stan) was the youngest of our family and he was considered too young to be outside so they put him to work inside the camp in the Smithy shop. Whenever there was an air raid the Nazis would all run to the bomb shelters but we were left outside.

Once when we were bombed one hit near where Eddie was and he was knocked unconscious for about three hours. We thought that we had lost him and that he would never wake up.

After some time Eddie was sent with us to work on the railway."

"When I began to work on the railway," Stan said, "the Station Master spoke to me very roughly calling me for everything and telling me to go and empty the waste paper basket in his office. The Nazi soldiers thought it was funny and laughed at me and I was very scared, but when I went to empty the basket I found a packet of sandwiches in the basket. From then on the Station Master and I played this game on the SS.

Another time he yelled that I had to go and grease the signals further up the line. He called me all sorts of horrible things, but I found more sandwiches up there too, so I knew he did not mean what he said.

Once we were bombed while working on the railway line. The bombs were falling all around us and one of the soldiers had his arm blown off right in front of me. There was a whooshing sound then a "woomph!" as the bomb hit and it was like an oven door opening in your face. I went crazy and started running around in circles, but then someone jumped on me and pulled me into a bomb hole.

I shall never forget the day our Camp was liberated. A group of American soldiers came out of the woods carrying a white flag and advanced on the Camp. The Nazi soldiers allowed them to get well out into the open and then began firing on them. Many were killed. Suddenly a jeep with a big white star on the side came roaring out of the woods and came bouncing over the paddock with a machine gun firing from the back. They drove right through the front gate of the compound and the Sergeant beside the driver fired a grenade launcher into the electrical works causing a great explosion and sending sparks all around the camp as the electric fence shut down.

Then he ordered the Nazis out of the towers. They all dropped their guns and were told to line up in front of him. They all had immaculate uniforms, while the American Sergeant was all dirty and tired looking with the strap hanging down from his helmet. He shouted at them, "My men were under a white flag!" ... My mother said I should not look, but I saw it all.

Then the sergeant walked towards us shouting that we were all free. Everyone just stood there. Then he yelled in Polish "You are all free!" Everyone rushed him and were crying and thanking him and kissing his boots and he was crying too and shouting out "Stop, stop, I am only a man!" He was so upset and the more he saw of the camp he just could not cope. He was from Chicago but his parents were Polish. More Americans arrived with lots of food and handed it out. Everyone ate so much that hundreds of people died from over eating."

Br Stan with his parents Anthony and Bernice

Eddie (Br Stan) was 13 years old at the end of the Second World War. I do not know if the above story is true but that is how he told it to us. On the 14th of August 1946 he joined the Boy Scouts. Also in 1948 he had the chance to be altar boy for his Sister Mary’s wedding to Jan Siejka. Mary and Jan are with us today. Last year they celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary with Pope John Paul II in a private audience of only 18 people. The Holy Father gave them special attention and he blessed and hugged them both.

In 1949, Br Stan’s parents, Anthony and Bernice Dawidowcz decided to come to Australia and settled in Launceston Tasmania. Eddie expressed his desire to be a priest and about 1956 joined the new Capuchin Franciscan Minor Seminary at Plumpton, west of Sydney in New South Wales. After doing his Novitiate with Brs Patrick Colbourne, Felix de Candia and Peter Tullis at Hawthorn in Melbourne, he was professed on the 23rd of February 1958.

After that he began studies for Priesthood first in Brisbane, then in Melbourne with the Dominicans, then with the Marists in Toongabbie and then back to Wynnum North. Towards the end of his studies in August of 1963 he began to suffer from "acute anxiety and tension" and the Doctor asked that he be suspended from studies for several months. Continuing stress forced his superiors to end his studies for Priesthood. Br Stanislaus spent some time at home with his family and then returned determined to continue in Religious life. He wrote to his superior. "I cannot be anything else, I wish to stay in the Order." Weighing it up, compassion won out and Br Stanislaus embarked on the life of a lay brother.

I first met him in the friary at Hawthorn. I had just finished my Postulancy and went to Melbourne for a holiday. I went to the Friary for lunch but was denied access to the enclosure. I heard Br Stan yelling at the superior that he should let me into the Refectory because I was a Postulant. However, it was not to be. Br Stan came back all smiles and set me up with a meal in the Parlour. He placed before me a huge bowl of soup in which there were chickens feet, whole potatoes and other odd things. I thought to myself that the spirit of Br Juniper was still very much alive in the Capuchin Order.

Everywhere Br Stan went he was always busy with enterprises. When he came to the Seminary at Plumpton in about 1968 he made it his home. In no time he had a garden, began looking after the dairy, milking the three cows and checking up on the two bulls. Then he turned up with a dog. He built a kennel, got more dogs (German Shepherds), and added to the garden in which he worked from after breakfast in the morning till late in the afternoon. Without a doubt, he was never lazy. He continued to expand the kennel, got more dogs, and started a second garden.

Br Stan and his beloved dogs

When they began building the Mt Druitt hospital Br Stan talked the site manager into accepting him as a Security Officer. He and his dogs quickly made the place secure. For this work he was paid very well – over $23,000. Later he extended his Security Service to other sites and finally to guarding the cars at the Bingo in our Parish of Plumpton. During his time there, not a single car was damaged. It was quite a sight to see him leading five German Shepherd dogs down to the parish. At the same time he worked in the Parish of Mt Druitt running Dinner Dances and organising other events.

Somewhere in the mid seventies the Order bought a house at 40 Janet Street Mt Druitt. It was made available to Br Stan to live in so that he could find a place of peace. Living at the Seminary he constantly worried about everything. He slept over there, came to the Seminary each morning for Prayers and Mass, and worked around the place all day. He then went back to his house after Evening prayer. For some time Fr Rod Bray, as Curate in the Mt Druitt Parish, lived with him at Janet Street. It gave Br Stan some peace and also gave some peace to the Guardian of the Seminary.

In the last two years be began to slow down. His garden grew more weeds than vegetables. He was hospitalised a few times and suffered from Diabetes. About three weeks ago he told me that the doctor advised him that besides a poor heart, kidneys and lungs he had Leukemia. He immediately wanted to celebrate and demanded that I take him to the famous fish restaurant "Doyles on the Beach" in Sydney Harbour at Watson Bay. The next day sitting there in the sunshine with the beautiful blue water and blue sky, he smiled and said, "Its a lovely day to die, Father Provincial. I am happy to go to the Lord." On the evening of the 8th of September, Our Lady’s birthday, he called the Seminary and said, "Come quickly Gus (Br Ted), I am dying!" By the time they got through all the locks with four dogs barking in the background they found that he had passed away peacefully on his bed.

Br Stan was not easy to live with. His many Guardians suffered as much as he did from his many enthusiastic enterprises, which caused him stress and tension. In this last year he had taken to raising chickens and they are laying eggs everywhere. Anyone who wants a chook need only see Fr Ted the Guardian. You all know Br Stan. He has been part of your lives. He was very active in the wider community even to selling his eggs to people at Bingo. Today of all days, I have wanted you to understand a little better the background to Br Stan’s life and to know his suffering. It is the suffering of many of the Polish people who have come here today, especially his sister Mary and her husband Jan.

Brs. Albert Colletta RIP, Felix de Candia, Claude Moscatelli RIP, Stan Dawidowicz RIP, Silvio Spighi RIP

I am firmly convinced he has gone to heaven. The fact that he died on Our Lady’s birthday convinces me of this and I believe that if all of us together with Br Stan place his and our suffering in God’s hands as a sacrifice of compassion then he will surely be forgiven and find peace with God.

This then is the role of the priest, to offer to God our lives and our memories and join them to the life and the memory of Christ. I believe that never before in history has the human race had to bear the awful awareness that our generation has had to bear. The media lays this crown of thorns upon our heads. The sufferings of this century are unparalleled in this sense of universal awareness. I readily understand what Padre Pio meant when he said that the World could do without the sun before it could do without the Mass. It is here in this greatest prayer of the church that we find the meaning of our lives. We do not come because we have to, but because there is no where else to bring our awareness and find meaning in our lives. Let us therefore offer up to God in this Mass the life of Br Stanislaus and at the same time the heavy reality of our Century so that we may well prepare ourselves for the challenges of the next Millennium by the exercise of the virtue of compassion. Let us bring our memories to the Mass and offer them into the hands of the priest.