March 4, 2014
Michael Shawn Winters, National Catholic Reporter
When my dad entered St. Mary’s parish school in Jewett City, Connecticut, he did not speak English, only Polish, and so he had to repeat first grade. The nuns oversaw my dad’s transition from Polish farmhouse to American mainstream. The middle of nine children, he was the first to go to college and by the time I came on the scene, he was as American as apple pie. A few weeks ago, he told me he was going to Mass at Sagrada Corazon church about fifteen minutes from our home, because he had requested a Mass there for the mother of a Spanish-speaking friend of the family.