Servant of Mary new file

nity to teach them Catechism, singing with them to make their work less tedious. Father Taudt emphasized in his testimony that Father Wyszy<ski took care of the simple people : Proclaiming God’s Word to them, encouraging them to receive the holy sacraments, he assisted especially the poor and the abandoned. In Father Wyszy<ski’s times, the Polish clergy, espe- cially in the villages, did not always fulfill their tasks. There were cases where on the occasion of the Easter con- fession, the peasants were forced to work on the parish priest’s property before they were admitted to the sacra- ments. These were times when there was a shortage of laborers due to wars or ravaging epidemics. Father Wyszy<ski wrote in his “Diary” on January 21, 1753, that he was often heartbroken to see that the peasants were so oppressed, even by the clergy. In addition to this, those busy at work on the priest’s property and talking to each other could not prepare properly to the receive the sacra- ments, especially due to the fact that most of them did not know the basic truths of the faith. So they would return home from church some all smiles, some gossiping, some quarreling . Some would even get drunk at the inns to the scandal of the non-believers and heretics. Father Wyszy<ski admits that he thought a lot about this matter when he was in Poland but could not find any way to make the lot of the peasants any easier. When he found himself in Rome, he visited the Holy Father and gave him a petition on behalf of the peasants. Then he would ask the 55 THE SERVANT OF MARY IMMACULATE