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<http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3354>http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3354
By Felix Carroll (Sep 21, 2008)
He was an energetic, intensely spiritual priest
who was happy in his pastoral duties. But Fr.
Michael Sopocko could never have imagined how in
1933, when he was appointed to be confessor to
the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy
in Vilnius, in present-day Lithuania, his life would change.
It was there, in a confessional, where he met Sr.
Maria Faustina (1905-1938), a humble nun with a
tremendous weight upon her. The Lord had begun
revealing to her His message of Divine Mercy an
urgent message that He wanted her to share with
the whole world. But who would believe her? At
first, no one. Not her superiors in the convent
and not her previous confessors.
Sister Faustina had prayed for a spiritual
director, someone to help guide her, someone who
understood that what she was experiencing was
real. Father Sopocko was the answer to her
prayers, and eventually he became the main
promoter of her revelations, the very linchpin in
the Lord's call to spread Divine Mercy throughout the world.
The Venerable Servant of God, the Rev. Michael
Sopocko (1888-1975), will be beatified Sunday,
Sept. 28, in Bialystok, Poland. And with that,
the world will begin to get to know the man on
the other side of the confessional whom Jesus
assured St. Faustina would be her "visible help
... on earth. He will help you to carry out My
will on earth" (Diary of Saint Faustina, 53).
A miracle attributed to the intercession of Fr.
Sopocko was approved by Pope Benedict XVI on Dec.
17, 2007. The miracle has yet to be made public.
In the meantime, there are many things we know about Fr. Sopocko.
"He was a priest's priest," says Fr. Seraphim
Michalenko, MIC, one of the world's leading
experts on St. Faustina and the message of Divine
Mercy. "He was a professor of theology. He was a
mentor and teacher to many. He was confessor to a
number of convents, and he was a military
chaplain. And he wrote so much. After being St.
Faustina's confessor, he wrote four big volumes
on Divine Mercy, and many articles for religious publications."
He was born in Nowosady, near Vilnius. He studied
theology at the University of Vilnius, and then
in Warsaw. He earned his doctorate in moral
theology in 1926. Among his duties was serving as
confessor to the Sister of Our Lady of Mercy, who
had a house in Vilnius. It was there where he
first met St. Faustina, who shared with him her startling revelations.
"At first, he wanted to quit," says Fr. Seraphim.
"He didn't want to be the confessor over there
because of what she was saying. Then the Mother
Superior said, 'Well, what are we supposed to
do?' And he said, 'Well, have her checked out by a psychiatrist.' "
She was tested, and she was deemed mentally stable.
"Father Sopocko found out from the nuns that she
was one of the best nuns in the convent," says
Fr. Seraphim. "But she told him things in
confession that nobody could possibly have known.
Nobody. And that scared him."
Saint Faustina had less than three years of
formal schooling, and yet here she was shedding
light on the progress of the mystical life of the
soul and giving an unparalleled understanding
into the mystery of Divine Mercy. Father Sopocko
had to turn to the writings of St. Thomas and St.
Augustine, among others, to help him to confirm
the authenticity of St. Faustina's revelations
that God's greatest attribute is mercy.
"In the confessional it became apparent that she
knew things that no one under normal
circumstances could know about," says Fr.
Seraphim. "For instance, one Lent, Fr. Sopocko
was asked to give a talk on the radio. She didn't
hear the talk. But next time he came for
confession, she told him how Jesus was very much
displeased with his talk on the radio because he
did not have a 'pure intention.' He later wrote
that she was right, that he had tried to make an
impression on people on what he said and how he
said it that was not a pure intention.
"So Jesus squealed on him!" Fr. Seraphim says, with a laugh.
"At another time," says Fr. Seraphim, "there was
a meeting of priests at the sisters' convent.
They were discussing some thing about the Holy
Trinity. They had hit a blank wall during their
discussion. Father Sopocko paused the meeting and
asked one of the nuns to have Sr. Faustina come
in. She entered, and Fr. Sopocko posed the
question to her, and she came out with such an
answer that all the other priests' mouths were
gaping because they were wondering how she knew the things she knew."
It was Fr. Sopocko who first instructed St.
Faustina to keep her Diary, which chronicles her
experiences of Divine Mercy and her mission to share it with the world.
When St. Faustina told Fr. Sopocko of her visions
of Jesus and His request for a new image to be
painted and spread throughout the world, it was
he who found the artist, E. Kazimirowski, who
would paint The Divine Mercy image.
He didn't stop there. In actions that mark the
beginning of the spread of The Divine Mercy
devotion, Fr. Sopocko made sure The Divine Mercy
image was displayed on the Sunday after Easter,
1935, over the famous Ostra Brama gate to the
city of Vilnius. And in the nearby church, he preached the message of mercy.
Following St. Faustina's death, and at the
outbreak of World War II, Fr. Sopocko gave Divine
Mercy material to Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, MIC, a
member of the Congregation of Marians of the
Immaculate Conception, who was escaping the Nazis.
"He's the one who gave the material to Fr. Joseph
Jarzebowski as he was coming to the States," says
Fr. Seraphim. "And where Fr. Jarzebowski was
doubting he would be able to get here to the
United States, Fr. Sopocko didn't say 'If you get
to the States spread this,' he said 'When you get to the States spread this.'"
Father Joseph eventually did make it to the U.S.,
where the Marians established a beachhead from
which they have spread the message of Divine Mercy around the world.
In the meantime, Fr. Sopocko suffered ridicule
from spreading the devotion, as St. Faustina
prophesized. She wrote in her Diary:
One day, I saw interiorly how much my confessor
would have to suffer: friends will desert you
while everyone will rise up against you and your
physical strength will diminish. I saw you as a
bunch of grapes chosen by the Lord and thrown
into the press of suffering. Your soul, Father,
will at times be filled with doubts about this work and about me.
I saw that God Himself seemed to be opposing
[him], and I asked the Lord why He was acting in
this way toward him, as though He were placing
obstacles in the way of his doing what He Himself
had asked him to do. And the Lord said, I am
acting thus with him to give testimony that this
work is Mine. Tell him not to fear anything; My
gaze is on him day and night. There will be as
many crowns to form his crown as there will be
souls saved by this work. It is not for the
success of a work, but for the suffering that I give reward (90).
During the 20-year ban of the devotion
(1959-1978, due to faulty translations of the
Diary), Fr. Sopocko took comfort in Sr.
Faustina's prophecy that the devotion would only
seem to be "utterly undone" (see Diary, 378).
Indeed 1935, St. Faustina had a vision of the road ahead for her confessor:
Once as I was talking with my spiritual director,
I had an interior vision quicker than
lightening of his soul in great suffering, in
such agony that God touches very few souls with
such fire. The suffering arises from this work.
There will come a time when this work, which God
is demanding so very much, will be as though
utterly undone. And then God will act with great
power, which will give evidence of its
authenticity. It will be a new splendor for the
Church, although it has been dormant in it from
long ago. That God in infinitely merciful, no one
can deny. He desires everyone to know this before
He comes again as Judge. He wants souls to come
to know Him first as King of Mercy. When this
triumph comes, we shall already have entered the
new life in which there is no suffering. But
before this, your soul [referring to Fr. Sopocko]
will be surfeited with bitterness at the sight of
the destruction of your efforts. However, this
will only appear to be so, because what God has
once decided upon, He does not change. But
although this destruction will be such only in
outward appearance, the suffering will be real.
When will this happen? I do not know. How long
will it last? I do not know. But God has promised
a great grace especially to you and to all
those... "who will proclaim My great mercy. I
shall protect them Myself at the hour of death as my own glory. (1738)
Father Sopocko died in 1975, before his zeal for
Divine Mercy was vindicated by the lifting of the
ban. Three years after his death, with the help
of the Archbishop of Kracow, Karol Cardinal
Wojtyla, the ban was lifted. Cardinal Wojtyla
would become Pope John Paul II, who eventually
beatified and canonized St. Faustina. It was Pope
John Paul II who also declared: "There is nothing
more man needs than Divine Mercy that love
which is benevolent, which is compassionate,
which raises man above his weakness to the
infinite heights to the holiness of God."
Divine Mercy has since become what Fr. Seraphim
calls "the greatest grassroots movement in the
history of the Church." None of this would have
been possible if it weren't for Fr. Sopocko, the
priest who believed St. Faustina.
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<http://halfthekingdom.mofuse.mobi/>Half the Kingdom! on your Mobile <*}}}><
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your
inspiration and continue with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
<*}}}><
<http://halfthekingdom.mofuse.mobi/>Half the Kingdom! on your Mobile <*}}}><
<*}}}><
<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/>Half the Kingdom! Blog <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the
Kingdom! Main Site <*}}}>< <*}}}><
<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/by-the-by/>Half the Kingdom! By the by <*}}}><
Lord, may everything we do begin with Your
inspiration and continue with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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