POLISH PRIDE IN ST. PATRICKS NEW YORK CITY

Rita Cosby With Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka And Tomaczek Bednarek

A beautiful service took place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York Sunday night as thousands came to pay their respects to the President of Poland and his top government officials who tragically died in a plane crash Saturday. In a sign of ethnic pride, red and white Polish flags adorned the Cathedral as Cardinal Egan led the grief-stricken crowd in prayer. Polish President Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others who were part of Poland’s political and military elite, were killed when their plane crashed outside a Russian airstrip. Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Poland’s Consul General in New York, read the names of all those who perished, while TV journalist Rita Cosby, who’s father was a Polish Resistance fighter, spoke about her emotional encounter with President Kaczynski during her first visit to Warsaw. The event was originally scheduled as an annual concert to honor Pope John Paul II, the Polish Pontiff who passed away five years ago. Meantime, thousands of miles away in Poland, there is now a national week of mourning honoring those who died on this weekend’s tragic flight.
Photos By: James Edstrom