Deacon Ziemianski Honored as Knight of St. Gregory

By Michael F. Flach
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 3/14/02)

More than 30 years of devotion to the Catholic Church was rewarded last week when Permanent Deacon Lawrence Ziemianski of St. Mark Parish in Vienna received the papal award Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great.

Archbishop Szczepan Wesoly, chairman of the John Paul II Foundation in Rome, bestowed the honor on Ziemianski, who was surrounded by family members and friends, including his wife, Marjorie, and mother, Stanislawa Szmyd Ziemianski. The archbishop was the celebrant and homilist at the Mass.

Pope Gregory XVI first established the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1831 to honor citizens of Papal States. The order is conferred on persons who are distinguished for personal character and reputation and for notable accomplishment. The order has civil and military divisions and three classes of knights.

The ceremony took place at Our Lady Queen of Poland and St. Maximillian Kolbe Church in Silver Spring. Father Philip Majka, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Chancellorsville and chaplain of the Friends of John Paul II Foundation, was among the concelebrants.

Archbishop Wesoly, a native of Katowice, Poland, was a guest at Ziemianski's home in Vienna prior to the ceremony. The archbishop praised Ziemianski's tireless efforts at making the writings and teachings of Pope John Paul II available to a wider audience through the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.

"Lent is a time to celebrate the central mystery of Christianity, the Resurrection of Christ," and to ask God for pardon and forgiveness, said the archbishop.

"It also is time to thank God for the good things we have done," he said. "The reason we come here tonight is to thank God for all the goodness that Larry Ziemianski has done in his life."

He is a person of faith who has served the Church as a deacon at God's altar and through his association with the John Paul II Foundation, Archbishop Wesoly said.

"The foundation may not be the biggest in Washington, he said, "but God is making Himself present through this organization."

After the investiture ceremony, congratulatory letters were read from Cardinal James A. Hickey, former archbishop of Washington, and Father Robert Kearns, provincial of the Josephite Fathers. Ziemianski studied for the diaconate at the Josephite seminary in Washington in the early 1970s.

Ziemianski, a 1957 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Dental Medicine, had an adult conversion experience in 1970. He was baptized in the Holy Spirit at Catholic University and decided to begin studies for the permanent diaconate. He attended classes two evenings a week, plus Saturdays and summers, for two years.

Cardinal William Baum of Washington ordained him to the diaconate on Dec. 8, 1973. At the time he was a member of St. Columbia Parish in Oxon Hill, Md. He moved to Vienna in 1984 and was assigned to St. Mark Parish by the late Arlington Bishop John R. Keating.

Ziemianski served two terms as president of the Washington chapter of the Friends of the John Paul II Foundation and for many years has been the bishop's liaison to the charismatic community in the Arlington Diocese.

In response to the Holy Father's call for a new evangelization within the Church, Ziemianski chaired 11 Evangelization 2000 conferences in the diocese. Father Ramiero Cantalamessa, the pope's preacher, was one of the keynote speakers.

"You certainly deserve (the honor) for your great dedication to the person and the message of John Paul II," wrote Father Cantalamessa in a congratulatory letter.

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