FR. KLAUS CIESZYŃSKI (1938-2023) R.I.P.

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On the 18th of September 2023, Father Klaus Cieszyński SJ died in a hospital in Lusaka
(Zambia). He was born July 30,1938.
Father Cieszyński entered the novitiate of Wielkopolska – Mazovia Province with the Society
of Jesus on October 10, 1957, and on October 11, 1959 he took his first religious vows. In
1961, he was arrested for “slandering the Polish People’s Republic system in local and
foreign correspondence”. He was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. He served the
entire sentence in prison in Łowicz and Strzelce Opolskie. In 1963, after being released from
prison, he went to Germany where he was issued a German passport.
When he joined the Jesuits he wanted to be a monk, but he later decided to ask his superiors
if it was possible to prepare for the sacrament of ordination. In the 1970s Father Klaus
Cieszynski studied with the Jesuits in Dublin (Mitown Park). He was ordained a priest on June 23,
1979 in Mönchengladbach in Germany.
On his initiative, in 1979, a meeting of Poles was held in Dublin during which the idea of
establishing the Irish Polish Society was born. He is considered the founder of the Society to
this day.
After taking the four vows of the Jesuit order, on 8 th December 1983 he was assigned to the
then Vice-Province of Zambia. He served almost his entire priestly life in Zambia.
He died in his 86 th year, 66 th year of his religious vocation and 45 th year of his priesthood.