THOUGHTS ALONG THE JOURNEY

Fr Yano was born a Polish Jew. During the Holocaust he was given to a Christian family who falsified a birth certificate and adopted him as their own. His life was spared while most of his family perished. In time Yano, whose history was never hidden from him, entered the seminary and was ordained. Oddly enough his older brother, the only other member of his family to survive, became a Rabbi. They both wound up working and living in Israel. The story goes that Yano’s brother was not able to cope with his younger brothers decision to become a catholic priest and the two were never able to find any common ground. Today and last Sunday I said the 9am Mass with Yano. It was my first direct contact (of which I am aware) with a Holocaust survivor and its significance was not lost on me. Yano is a dry old stick who is used to calling the shots. He had so many arguments with his Bishop in Poland that he now lives on his own and is a free agent. As a Survivor he was given a unit by the Israeli government who also support him financially. When I first met him just before Mass last week he introduced himself as ‘Kyrle Elaison.’ Thankfully I am not as dumb as I look, a few minutes later at the introduction of the Mass I introduced myself as ‘Christie Elaison’, no body in the congregation knew what I was saying but Yano, standing by side, smiled. He cringed when I asked to have a photo taken with him, but it was worth whatever he muttered under his breath as the shutter clicked. See my album section ‘Fr Yanos & I’.