Józef Gawlina


Józef Feliks Gawlina, born in 1892 in Strzybnik in Silesia - died 1964 in Rome was a Divisional general in the Polish Armed Forces. He was an ordained priest, Doctor of Theology and from 1933, Catholic bishop in the Military Ordinariate of Poland. After the Second world war, cardinal Hlond gave him the brief to provide pastoral care to the Polish diaspora. In the words of Pope John Paul II, Gawlina was a "bishop - Nomad". He was raised to the rank of Archbishop in 1957. Following his death, the Secretary General of the Second Vatican Council described him as a "real pastor".