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	Downtown Congregation Welcomes New Pastor By Mary Beth Smetzer Fairbanks News-Miner [Fairbanks AK] December 4, 2005 An undercurrent of excitement ran high Saturday at Immaculate Conception Church as Bishop Donald Kettler installed its new pastor, the Rev. Mirek Woznica, in a simple, straightforward ceremony at the 5:30 p.m. Mass. "Pray that God will bless you and your new pastor in a very special way," Kettler said at the opening of the installation service. Incense and music, packed pews and a standing-room-only crowd combined for a celebratory atmosphere. From time to time joyful applause and laughter broke through the solemnity of the ceremony in the century-old church on the banks of the Chena River. Heads nodded, and smiles widened when Kettler formally introduced the Polish priest to church deacons, staff members, the parish council, Stephen ministers and the congregation. "Always be a loving father, gentle shepherd and wise teacher ... to lead your people in the profession of faith," Kettler advised Woznica. When it came time for the new pastor to speak, he thanked the bishop for his trust, and the congregation for its warm welcome, adding, "I ask for your prayers for myself and this parish." Just six months ago, Kettler told this same congregation that its pastor, the Rev. Richard McCaffrey, had been suspended from his pastoral duties while an inquiry was conducted, a requisite part of the procedure when a cleric is accused of abuse. Three months later he read a letter to a silent congregation that McCaffrey was relieved from all priestly duties in the diocese following a diocesan investigation. Saturday's installation marks a new beginning for parishioners. At a reception afterward, a festive crowd shared food and Mirek cut a triple-decker cake before he was presented a black velvet parka trimmed with a wolverine inner ruff and wolf outer ruff. Kettler is optimistic about Mirek's assimilation into the downtown parish, citing his 15 years of experience in parish work in Poland and Australia. Earlier, the bishop had thanked the congregation for managing the church on its own in the absence of a pastoral administrator. "Now they have someone to turn to," he said at the reception. "That's the biggest thing." In an interview last week, Mirek said he applied to work in Alaska a year ago, when he learned there was a shortage of priests in the missionary diocese. Since Woznica's arrival in Alaska in September, he has helped out at ICC, and now that he is pastor he doesn't plan on making any big changes. "I prefer evolution as it comes," he said. The multi-lingual priest was born in Silesia in southwest Poland and speaks the dialect as well as Polish, English and Russian, which was forced upon the inhabitants during Soviet occupation. He also is familiar with two Aboriginal tongues from the five years he worked with the people in the Australian desert. "It was a great privilege and a great joy to work with the people there," he said. Woznica expresses the same enthusiasm for his current parish ministry, which encompasses at least 650 families. "The people are much more important to me than anything else," he said. The diocesan priest also holds a countryman, the late Pope John II, in high esteem, and met him twice, once in Poland and once in Rome. The first meeting with Pope John Paul took place when Woznica was a seminarian. He and four other classmates contrived to don clerical collars which they ordinarily weren't allowed to wear, deeming it was the only way to get close enough to meet the pope. But the joke was on them. Walking down the street together, the John Paul II came toward them from the opposite direction. "He spotted us, and said, 'You are not priests, are you?'" "We answered, 'No,'" and he said, "But I bless you anyway," Woznica said. Woznica's sense of humor has been noticed and is appreciated, said longtime parishioner Barbara Doogan. Woznica observed that ICC parishioners are very strong in their faith and in their sense of belonging together. "They have done very well and whatever is needed, we'll work it out," he said. "I don't feel any burden on me of the past and I look forward to the future."
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