Syzdek Family Newsletter

Bells will toll Sunday when Stanislaw Wielgus is inducted as Warsaw’s new archbishop, succeeding Cardinal Jozef Glemp. But din of another kind is dominating now, and Catholic journalist Kazimierz Sowa is not alone in seeing “black clouds” hanging over Wielgus’ accession to one of the most important posts in Poland’s Catholic Church. Archbishop Wielgus, 67 years old and formerly the bishop of Plock, is alleged to have spied for years on his fellow priests. Historian and civil rights’ ombudsman Andrzej Paczkowski, who set up a historians’ commission to examine the secret service’s documents, said Thursday he had “no doubt at all” that Wielgus was an informant.

Link.

The New York Times reports that he denies that he was an informant:

Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, the new Catholic prelate of Warsaw who is caught in eastern Europe’s widening hunt for former collaborators with the Communist-era secret police, denied today that he had ever spied for Poland’s Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa, the security service known by its initials. He insisted that recently uncovered files naming him as an informant were filled with fabrications.

Nancy Clara Brown Syzdek was recently promoted to Assistant Director of Student Life Marketing at UNLV. She is responsible for marketing programs for student recruitment, career counseling, and student life. She is responsible for the student life website. Nancy is married to David Syzdek, the youngest son of Bruno Syzdek and lives in Las Vegas.

Hello To Everyone,

For some of you, this is not new news. Therefore you might want to delete and move on. For others, this is some new and exciting news so hang on. On August 8th we were matched with a birth mother and on August 19th Elizabeth Rose was born. That’s right, we are now parents of another beautiful little girl. She was born at 4:51pm on Sat. August 19th, weighing 7 lbs, 14 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. We were able to meet her and bring her home on August 22nd. So we had 15 days to prepare for our new daughter. We are again feeling very blessed by God for this beautiful gift. She is a great baby. She sleeps all night with the exception of us waking her to eat every three hours. She doesn’t cry much, smiles often and is very peaceful. She has a head full of dark brown hair and dark eyes. She is such a precious sight.

Emily is loving being a big sister. It was quite a surprise for her. Due to the potential complications with adoptions, we chose not to tell her ahead of time. Therefore, she did not know until we walked in the door carrying a baby. The first words out of her mouth were “Is that my baby brother or sister?” When we assured her it was and that we would be taking her home, she then said, very worriedly, that we needed to get a baby carrier for her. When we explained that we had one and that we all knew, she quite shocked that she was the only one who didn’t know. Well, she quickly got over that and was and has been totally consumed with being a big sister.

We had to go to Houston to pick Elizabeth up and made the trip in one day (well, really 16 hours). We got home in the early morning hours of Wed with one little girl wanting a bottle and one very sleepy girls running around the house looking at all the “new” baby things. You see, we could not set up anything before we left due to not wanting to tip Emily off and just the stress of the uncertainty. So, while we were gone to get Elizabeth we had many angels enter our home and organize, clean, move furniture and set up the nursery. What a wonderful gift and blessing they are. We have been very blessed in so many ways. Thanks to them, our first few days home were smoother then they would have been. On Wednesday when Elizabeth was meeting her new doctor, mommy was meeting hers and found out that she had a very severe case of Strep throat. She had literally worried herself sick.

So, we did have a few adventurous days, but now all seems to settling down and we all seem to be finding our routine: Elizabeth being a great baby; Emily being a new kindergarten and great big sister and mommy and daddy loving life and enjoying our sleep deprived state of blessings. We are so blessed to have so many prayers and support from all of you. We have great families who have been so supportive and loving and understanding through all this. We could not do what we do without everyones love, support and prayers. Thank you so much.

We have attached a few early pictures. Enjoy viewing and meeting our new family.

Love

Terry, Jerry, Emily and Elizabeth Johnson

From Polskie Radio (link):

Around seven thousand EU soldiers, including five hundred from Poland, will take part in a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which will help enforce ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.
Speaking after an EU foreign minister meeting in Brussels, Polish head of diplomacy Anna Fotyga said she had expressed readiness to increase the Polish contingent in Lebanon to about 500 troops. Presently, 214 Polish soldiers are serving in Lebanon. The core of the peacekeeping force will be provided by France and Italy.

Steve Syzdek has posted 56 pictures of the Family Reunion on his Flickr account. Feel free to add comments and descriptions to his pictures. Adding names would be greatly appreciated.

The 8th Syzdek Family Reunion of Texas was held on Saturday, June 17, 2006 at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church Recreational Hall in Bremond, Texas. Almost three hundred descendants with families and guests from as far as Pennsylvania, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada, plus several adjacent states and many cities and towns in Texas attended.

The heavy rain an hour or so before the 9 AM registration did not hamper the happy and enthusiastic relatives. Exchanges of joyful greetings were exchanged until it was time to attend a Memorial Mass for all the deceased Syzdek family members at 10:30 AM. Saint Mary’s Pastor, Father Celso Yu was the Mass celebrant who emphasized the importance of family unity, not only every three years; but, at all times. He emphasized that the younger generation be involved to carry on family traditions and customs.

After Father Yu’s blessing a hearty lunch catered by the Coal Mine Restaurant and desserts brought by the guests was enjoyed; only one big complaint was voiced – POLSKA KELBASA was not on the menu.
The afternoon was enjoyed by visiting with other extended family members while the raffle and auction was taking place. Most items were hand crafted and donated by members. Also, there were pictures and genealogical information displayed to share and provisions were made to update family information.        

We want to thank Mary Johnston of Bedford, Texas for nine years of hard work as President and Margaret Syzdek of Bremond, Texas for her more than 12 years as Vice President. Most of all; many thanks to Joseph K. Syzdek of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for twenty-one years as Treasurer. 

The new officers for the next reunion, which will be in 2009, and the future reunions are Patricia Syzdek of Houston, Texas as President and Jim and Kathi Syzdek of League City, Texas as Treasurers. 

Bruno C. Syzdek

Thanks to Kaye Stone for providing a link to her album of photos from the family reunion.

Jeremy, Uncle Sam, Hank, Aunt Mickey, Jason, and Becky.

Ever since their party scored big in Poland’s elections last fall, the Kaczynski brothers — identical twin movie stars with equally big political ambitions — were widely assumed to be running the country in tandem behind the scenes. Now, it’s official.

On Saturday, Poland’s governing Law and Justice Party voted to name its party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country’s new prime minister. With his brother, Lech, already holding the Polish presidency, there is no longer any doubt that the 57-year-old, chubby-faced twins are in charge of the eastern European country.

Link.

Joe Syzdek graciously posted some pictures of the family reunion on his photo-sharing page. If you have any pictures of the reunion that you would like to share, please leave me a comment and I will link to them.

Katherine Kubiak and Bruno Syzdek enjoy visiting at the 2006 Syzdek Family Reunion in Bremond, Texas.

Despite some heavy rain in the morning, Syzdeks filled the Parish Hall in Bremond on June 17, 2006. A special Mass was held at St. Mary’s and Syzdek’s enjoyed visiting, catching up and eating lunch together. In the afternoon, a raffle was held to raise money for future reunions. It was a great time. We’ll have more details on the plans for the 2009 reunion, new reunion officers, and attendance numbers as we get the details.