Sr Kasia is a theologian and a specialist in Jewish studies. For over twenty years, she has been actively engaged in the development of Jewish-Christian and interfaith dialogue. Much of her work in Poland has been in advocacy for remembrance and truth.
Before the Holocaust, Poland was home to 3.5 million Jews, accounting for about 10% of the population. In major cities, Jews and Poles spoke each other’s languages, and even the small market towns were somewhat mixed. While antisemitism was a reality to some degree, Jewish people were an integral part of Poland, and Jewish culture was woven into Polish society. The atrocities of World War II reduced the Polish Jewish population to 45,000, and today there are estimated to be between 10,000 and 20,000 Jews in Poland.
Sr Kasia promotes and supports local, national and international initiatives and events commemorating Holocaust victims, and teaches about dialogue by participating as an organiser, co-organiser and active participant in conferences, seminars and other gatherings. Aware of the importance of every gesture in what can sometimes be the fragile reality of encountering others, her involvement spans small parish and community meetings as well as major international conferences.
In 2003, as a student of theology, Kasia took part in an international Jewish-Christian seminar that revealed to her a gap in her own identity and the identity of her home region of Rzeszów. She set about learning more about the history of Polish Jews and their rich spiritual tradition.
During her doctoral studies at the UK Open University and the Progressive Jewish Leo Baeck College in London, Sr Kasia gained practical and theological experience for the work for interfaith dialogue. She has taught in various parts of the world, from Poland, through Jerusalem and London, to Zimbabwe and the Congo. Since 2023, she has been co-chair of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, and last year she became vice-president of the International Council of Christians and Jews. She is also involved in Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue.
In her speech she recalled the writings of Father Musiał, pioneer of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and Polish-Jewish reconciliation, in whose name the award is bestowed. She noted how his words have contributed to the discovery of her “vocation within a vocation” in her journey towards dialogue.
“How relevant,” she said, “are the words of Father Musiał, who wrote in 1997: ‘There is still a lack of social awareness that antisemitism is deadly in its nature and in all its forms, although most often not directly and not immediately.’”
Kasia dedicated the prize to all sisters of Notre Dame de Sion, past and present, for their contribution to Jewish-Christian dialogue. “They are my inspiration,” she said. She was also grateful to Sr Maricica Benchea, NDS, who represented the Congregation at the award event.
During the ceremony, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś was also awarded for his work promoting the spirit of Christian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish dialogue and co-operation.
