Wanda Półtawska

Mrs Wanda Półtawska has a doctorate in medical science and specialisation in psychiatry. She was involved in scouting. She was imprisoned in the Nazi German concentration camp in Ravensbruck. She was a close friend of John Paul II. She wrote a book about this friendship. The title of the book is 'Beskidzkie rekolekcje' [Retreats in the Beskidy Mountains]. The book presents the correspondence between Dr Poltawska and Fr Karol Wojtyla (later John Paul II), which lasted almost 50 years. The Vatican included this publication into the documentation of the beatification cause of the Polish Pope.

John Michael Talbot

a lay American musician and singer, founder of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity. Fascinated with the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, he had a conversion experience and joined the Roman Catholic Church in the 1970s. Married. Author of more than 50 musical albums and books. Involved in the formation of Christian musicians in the U.S.A. through the Troubadour for the Lord organization he has founded. His most recent book is The World is my Cloister (2009).

Moris Maurin

a Little Brother of Jesus, French, superior of the Community of Little Brothers of Jesus in Poland, a contemplative, author of A Life of Contemplation in the Heart of the World. Little Brothers of Jesus serve the most needy and the poorest of the poor. They earn their own living, and live in the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld: „My secret dream is something very simple, small in numbers, like the first communities of the early Church. A small family, a little monastic centre, tiny and very simple.“ The first congregation was founded in 1933 in North Africa by F. R. Voillaume. It had five members. Today the community has more than 250 members around the world.

Robert Cudzich

a blues and jazz musician, guitar player, member of New Life M band, primary school English teacher. Co-founder of Ludzmierz Meetings for Christian Musicians. Father of six: Mateusz, Kamil, Piotr, Magda, Marta and Kuba. Together with his sons and Marcin Stawicki, members of “Siódma Trąba” (“Seventh Trumpet”) group, recorded a CD entitled “Droga do Ciebie” (“The Road to You”). After years of suffering from drug addiction, he experienced freedom and healing through his conversion and recognition of Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. Member of “Dom na Skale” (“House on the Rock”) charismatic community. Lives in Dursztyn.

Krzysztof Łoskot

“Małżeńskie Drogi” (“Married Ways” Movement) animator, father of four: Grzegorz, Dorota, Magdalena and Urszula, and grandfather of eleven: Jagusia, Franek, Małgosia, Marysia, Staś, Zbyś, Stefanek, Szymcio, Nelcia, Antoś and Tereska. Together with his wife Ann, involved for many years in leading retreats for married couples and engaged couples preparing for the sacrament of marriage. An engineer in building installations by profession, former Warsaw Technical University lecturer, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the professional monthly Polski Instalator; researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Retired last year.

Roman Kluska

a businessman, founder and former president of Optimus, a computer company traded on the stock exchange. He founded his company in 1988, with next to nothing in terms of capital. The computers were initially assembled on an outwork basis. Under his presidency, Optimus became the leading manufacturer of computers in Poland and a leader on the market of fiscal cash registers. Roman Kluska is a co-founder of the biggest Polish internet portal Onet.pl. In the 1990s, he was one of the wealthiest Poles. He resigned as president in 2000, for reasons including the atmosphere of corruption which made it impossible to do honest business in Poland at that time. Over the last decade, his name has become a synonym of fighting against the lawlessness of the state apparatus and corruption. He now owns a sheep farm and a dairy producing supreme quality cheeses.

Andrzej Solecki

co-owner of the private St. Luke Clinic in Bielsko-Biała. Doctor of Medical Sciences, second degree specialist in orthopaedic surgery, graduated from Jagiellonian University’s Collegium Medicum 27 years ago. “I have operated on several thousand knees since then”, he laughs. With a passion for skiing, he has co-founded the “Szusujmy Razem” (“Let’s Ski Together”) Association which helps disabled children learn to ski. He is also the originator of Teetotaller Winter Games organized for several years now in Kamesznica. He has been a teetotaller himself for 25 years and assures this is a very good idea for a lifestyle. His wife Julitta has won the Polish Alpine Skiing Championships several times; now works as an otolaryngologist. His son, Wojciech – also a physician – intends to specialize in surgery. His daughter, Kasia, is a second grade student of a Catholic secondary school, a skiing competitor and assistant instructor, and a lover of sports. They are all members of the “Miasto na Górze” (“City upon a Hill”) community in Bielsko-Biała.

Andrzej Sionek

A lay preacher, with a Ph.D. in biblical theology, standing contributor to the Interdepartmental Institute of Ecumenism and Dialogue at Pope John Paul II University in Krakow, Director of the Catholic Association “En Christo – Catholics for Evangelization, Renewal and Unity of Christians”. Runs a formation centre and meeting house in Lanckorona. Involved in the Light and Life Movement almost from the very beginning, since 1967. In the 1970s, led one of the first Renewal in the Spirit seminars in Poland. For more than thirty years now has ministered as a lay missionary without any permanent source of income. Married to Sanita, father of two daughters: Ewa and Marta.

A Representative of Jerusalem Communities

Religious brothers and sisters from the Jerusalem Community that was founded in Warsaw (in Łazienkowska Street) in April 2010. The Jerusalem Communities are religious congregations founded in Paris in 1975. Brothers and sisters are ‘in the heart of cities, in the heart of God’, working in cities, open to the world, living in silence and prayer. Fr Pierre-Marie Delfieux, a former chaplain of students who had spent two years in the Sahara living a hermit’s life, founded the communities. In the heart of the desert he heard the call to found oases of prayer in the desert of cities. Currently, the communities have ca. 180 brothers and sisters coming from 30 nationalities.