Sister Faustina with the Divine Mercy image

Polish priest Michal Sopocko has been beatified at a ceremony in Bialystok by Archbishop Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The beatification is a very important element connceting the Polish Church with the Universal Catholic Church.

Agnieszka Bielawska reports

The ceremony took place at the tomb of father Sopocko in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Bialystok. After the life story of the priest was presented Archbishop Angelo Amato read out the Papal document proclaiming father Michal Sopocko as blessed: 'Fulfilling the wish of the Bialystok Bishop and other brothers in faith, following the council of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of saints, with our Apostolic Power we state that Father Michal Sopocko ,who devoted his life to proclaiming Divine Mercy, is declared blessed.'

Father Sopocko was the spiritual leader of Sister Faustina Kowalska and the promoter of the revelations that she received on Divine Mercy said the Metropolita of Krakow Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, during the ceremony in Bialystok: 'Faustina was the apostle and he was her promoter. We have to admire his courage, he was not afraid to admit to the Divine Mercy. He wrote about what Faustina received from Jesus. Our Church is grateful.'

As Sister Faustina's confessor, Father Sopocko instructed her to keep her Diary. When Sister Faustina told father Sopocko of her visions of Jesus, Father Sopocko found the artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski who painted the first portrait of Jesus as the Divine Mercy. The Divine Mercy devotion became a life giving inspiration for Father Sopocko. He founded the Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Christ.

Blessed Father Michał Sopoćko

Father Sopocko and Sister Faustina are seen in the Catholic Church as two inseparable figures of the Divine Mercy devotion, says Jonathan Luxmoore, correspondent of western religious media: 'Father Sopocko is a modest, sort of 'behind the scene' figure, somebody who has absolutely lived in obedience to the requirements, teachings of his church. Even at a time when the Divine Mercy was very much frowned upon by the Catholic Church. It is important to remember this: it took several decades before the Church, even in Poland, acknowledged this as an authentic expression of religiousness, of spirituality. For somebody like Father Sopocko, who had very much guided Faustina through this, it must have been a bitterly frustrating time. Nevertheless he remained obedient, respectful towards the Church's decision and ultimately he was vindicated fully when with the help of Pope John Paul II in Krakow, the Divine Mercy became an official Church cult.'

The Divine Mercy will always be associated in the Catholic Church with Pope John Paul II. He was a student in Krakow in the final days of Faustina's life and thus had a very personal involvement in the Divine Mercy devotion. It is important that the support of Pope John Paull II made the Divine Mercy, which originated as something specifically Polish, become a universal Church matter.

The beatification of father Michal Sopocko underlines the importance of the Divine Mercy, says Jonathan Luxmoore, and is a very significant matter for the Polish Catholic Church: 'It is always extremely important for any national church to have one of its figure beatified. You could see it as a test of the health, the richness of a particular national Catholicism if you like. It is extremely important as a way of connecting the Polish Church with the whole Universal Church, and not only the Polish Church but Polish Catholicism in all its many distinctive traditions and expressions. Connecting them somehow up to the universal, international Church. It is a very important moment from that point of view.'

Father Sopocko died in 1975 at the age of 87. He was buried in the parish cemetery in Bialystok. In 1988 after the inauguration of the beatification process, his body was moved to the Church of the Divine Mercy.