Polish Priest from Shepherd's Bush memorial mass today

Monsignor Bronislaw Gostomski, who was parish priest at St Andrew Babola Roman Catholic Church in Shepherd's Bush, was among the 90 victims of last Saturday’s disaster in Russia. There will be a memorial mass for him at the Church this evening starting at 1900.

At the time the scenes at this Church were desperately depressing with many from the large Polish community making for the Church as soon as they'd heard about the incident, only to find in some cases that their own priest had been one of the victims.

This evening's mass is likely to be a very large affair which is bound to have knock-on traffic problems in the areas of Leyfield and Goldhawk Road. I don't think anyone's likely to complain very much though.

I wasn't aware of this until the incident took place but apparently the Church in Shepherd's Bush holds the largest memorial to the massacre at Katyn in Russia that the Polish delegation were on their way to commemorate. Again, as I said at the time, that incident and the whole way Britain has treated Poland in the past, while they stood by us during World War II, means we will always owe a huge moral debt to them which is rarely acknowledged anymore. Maybe this will make us pause for thought too.