Fr. Kazimierz Przydatek SJ, born on March 4, 1933 in Tarnowskie Gory died on September 27, 2020 in Rome.
He was the son of Capt. Adam Przydatek, who was shot by the Soviets on April 16, 1940 in Katyn. Together with his mother, grandmother and siblings, he was deported to Siberia, where the entire family lived in extremely difficult conditions. His mother died of fatigue in 1944, while he returned to Poland at the age of 14. On July 31, 1950 he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest in Warsaw on August 22, 1960. After that Fr. Przydatek went to Rome for his doctorate studies and over there he defended his doctorate in theology.
From 1965 to 1973, he worked at the Vatican radio. In 1974 he was appointed Secretary of the Holy Year 1975, after which, with the appointment of Paul VI, he was a member of the Pastoral Council at the Vatican. Since then, he has worked with Polish pilgrims coming to Rome. He was the first director of the Centre and the Pilgrim's Home "Corda Cordi" in Rome.
He also witnessed the assassination of the Pope on May 13, 1981, and immediately organized prayer vigils for John Paul II on St. Peter's Square. On the square, he placed an empty Papal throne on which there was an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa made of seeds – a gift of pilgrims from Wielkopolska, with the letters: SOS.
From 1986, he was the Rector of the St. Andrew’s Church at the Quirinal where the body of St. Stanislaus Kostka, Saint Patron of Poland, rests. In parallel, for several decades he was a chaplain in one of Rome’s hospitals. Then, he lived and worked at the del Gesù Church in Rome. Subsequently, he moved to Naples where he served as a pastor and confessor in the Jesuit Church of Il Gesù nuovo. The last years of his life, he spent in the infirmary of the Society of Jesus at the residence of St. Peter Kaniz in Rome.
The outstanding and humble Jesuit, who was known by almost all Poles who sought comfort in the Peter’s Capital, has passed away.
The funeral took place on September 29, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. in the Chapel of St. Francis Borgias in the General Curia in Rome.
"On the chessboard of Divine Providence" - he wrote in one of his memoirs - "every person plays a proper role, as God has marked him. Each "transfer of the figure", although dependent on the free human will, has been foreseen in advance by the Creator and seeks to fulfill His final plan, regardless of whether someone is a King, a Queen or an ordinary pawn "on the chessboard of human life". It is also worth remembering that in general, the chess game begins with a simple movement of an ordinary pawn. The last pawn sometimes determines the win, not the king. The most important thing is that God's plans come true."
