Episode 4 | The Sacraments with Katie Golwacz | Faith Into Action Podcast | 75th Anniversary Series

Catholics have been putting their faith into action for 75 years in the Diocese of Joliet — and we have a lot to celebrate! 

In Episode 4, Michelle Dellinger interviews Katie Golwacz, a parishioner at Church of the Holy Ghost in Wood Dale. Katie's story about her struggle to receive childhood sacraments in Yugoslavia following WWII is fascinating. She can give us all a new perspective about our faith — and the religious freedom we likely take for granted.

This episode is one of 14-part series being produced for our 75th Anniversary. Justin Reyes, who leads the Department of Catechesis and Evangelization, and Michelle Dellinger, director of communication, co-host the series, interviewing a wide variety of clergy, religious, and parishioners across the diocese.
  
New episodes are released on YouTube and podcasts platforms the first Monday of each month. Find us anywhere you get your podcasts, and be sure to hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode! 

Transcript

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[Music] Catholics have been putting their faith into action for 75 years in the dicese of Joliet and we have a lot to celebrate this podcast episode is one of a 14p part series being produced for our 75th anniversary I'm Justin Ray is one of the co-hosts for the season and I lead the department of katakis and evangelization and I'm Michelle delinger the director of communications together we'll interview a wide variety of clergy religious and parishioners across the dicese we're so happy you're here with us enjoy the[Music] show hi I'm joined today by Katie goat a parishioner at Church of the Holy Ghost in Wooddale Katie's story is fascinating It's About Love and War and dedication and I think she can give us all A New Perspective about our faith and the religious freedom we likely take for granted thank you for being with us here today Katie we really appreciate you sharing your story and I'd like to start by having you give us some details about your your family your childhood your parents where you were born what it was like what you remember yes I I was born in uh former Yugoslavia a town called Yuka and um I had one sister that was 10 years older than me um my uh mom died young I was born just around the time of when the uh Second World War started okay so you were born in Yugoslavia during this very volatile time in its history and following the German invasion and World War II officially ending in 40 1945 the Yugoslav government fled to London in Exile and left your region with a communist-led transitional government and many people were actually taken into custody for treason trials were broadcast to destroy civil opposition and in fact the Catholic church was singled out and targeted by the new authorities and your Archbishop was even tried and imprisoned so as a Catholic Family this climate probably affected everyone really deeply didn't it it it was very hard and we were forbidden to go to church our priest just disappeared I mean they just took him and we never found out what happened to him and um we were um told that if we go to church and if we practice uh religion we were going to be taken into orphanages or our parents could go to jail and so pretty much um we didn't have any freedom you know any we were um was very oppressive you know sure okay so you're a child and you can no longer go to church but you had a special person in your life who continued to teach you Catholicism didn't you yes uh my grandfather my mom passed away and then it was just my sister and me and Grandpa was taking care of us cuz my dad had to be trying to make sure that we survive you know to work and so grandpa taught me okay he um he was always telling me stories about when he was young and about his religion he was very religious he U was born in 1878 and he helped build a town church so it was the church was very special to him so he was really involved yes right and so he's the one that decided you know to tell me stories and then he started teaching me um to read the catechism and go through everything you know and uh he was very influential in my in my religion and uh believing in God that God is always with you and God is going to save you you know to sounds like he was a great blessing to your family yes and so in addition to your grandpa there was another man a priest from another town cuz you had lost yours um who also made efforts to help you and others learn your faith right yes mhm tell me about that somehow through someone he found out that we didn't have a priest but we had a few Catholic families still left in town and so once a month he would ride his bicycle through so he wouldn't be detected kind of through corn fields and woods and stuff and he would come and say mess for us and there was about 10 kids that were old enough you know to have the first confir uh the first the uh confession confession and the communion and then the confirmation so what he did is he started he he has to sneak into town and so did we we went through the garden there was a garden around the church and we would go through the bushes and the stuff and come into the back in church not in the front see were literally hiding as you went into the building so the building still existed building yeah yes it was still there right it isn't there anymore okay yeah but um I'll get to that and so anyway so he he started you know he he had us in a back room where nobody could see us and he was talking to us about um um our first confession everything so we did this all it didn't take years in in a couple of months okay because he wanted to make sure that we we go through all this you know and then um u 2 three weeks later he came back and we did our uh a First Communion and then he started working on the confirmation okay okay so you did it in stages yes right right and then um when we were getting ready to have our uh confirmation it was a very exciting time for us kids there was six of us at 10 six girls and four boys okay okay these were kids that you had grown up with right right yes and I went to school with and everything okay and so he um somehow the authorities found out about it okay and they said if uh if the the bishop and the priest come for the confirmation they're going to if they step a foot over a border they're going to kill him and so it it was cancelled my my dad came home and he said that you know there isn't going to be any confirmation it's cancelled and it was very disappointing you know for us well you must have been so conflicted of course you wanted to go through the ceremony but you didn't want harm to come to these or else my my Dad could have been taken prisoner or they going to put us in orphanages they would threat threaten us with all these things okay but our parents didn't give up okay they were working with the with the priest whatever they I don't know whatever they met in you know in in secret and so they decided that the priest and the bishop were going to come at night they're going to cross the river with a rowboat okay and then they were going to come at night so on the last day my dad told me that uh we're going to get confir confirmed right but I cannot tell it to anybody it has to be just between us you know a secret and so he doesn't get go to jail or I don't get taken to orphanages and then at that particular point my sponsor was not available so we had to substitute my dad's Aunt as my sponsor you know who lived with you locally right right okay and um yeah the the the bishop and the and the priest uh came with the robot somebody brought them over with the robot across the river and then they stayed in the woods till it got really dark and then they snuck in the back door and we had our confirmation and it was it was such[Music] um a lifting it it was like uh almost you can't explain how happy we were that we were able to to do our confirmation you know we didn't have no party or anything afterwards it was all secret you know and um after the the con the confirmation I I felt that the Lord was standing right behind me and watching me and protecting me okay and I um I I loved I loved the our our statue of the Blessed Virgin holding baby Jesus every time I went to church I never that that was the first place I always would go to it was just my favorite thing and I would like try talking to Mary so you can still see this in your mind's eye yes yeah I still see her statue in the glass thing that was in so after the confirmation I I went by the statue I kneel down I prayed and I thanked her for helping us get our confirmation done and then I realized that you know I'm not a little girl girl anymore I'm growing up and my faith is growing and I have to really um concentrate on the and the Lord and and and you know and that have him help me and be there for me all the time and I have experienced that then we were told my dad said you cannot tell anybody what happened you know that we had our confirmation it's a secret and the kids were all told the same thing so in school we avoided each other because we didn't want to be happy and talk about it oh so you had gone through this special experience with these other kids but you couldn't really share that right right exactly we had to be very careful who we talked to and what we said and everything it was because you had to worry about your your family yourself you know you didn't want to oh sure you wanted to protect everyone that you loved right exactly and okay how old were you at this time uh I was uh 13 okay 13 years so you're just kind of becoming a teenager and after some time your family left your H town and you immigrated where did you go the year the year later my my dad got a job in another town so we moved okay to the other town that didn't have a church I don't know if they had destroyed it or what but there was no church in the town okay so then my Dad decided that you know it's time to um leave the country okay because it was still very oppressive very right exactly and you you still had no rights you know they took away all your property all your rights you you kind of like were uh didn't your life really didn't you weren't free so where did you go next then we crossed the the Border uh and we we in Austria we got the train and we went to Germany um there was on the border of um by salsburg a refugee camp on the other side the German side and um we we were um they we got Asylum from the German uh government to stay gred right to stay there and uh then they moved us to the further to another place okay and and eventually my dad was able to get together with a uh Catholic relief service okay and he worked with them and they um because they had to find a sponsor for us okay to come to the United States so that was your goal you didn't want to stay in Germany no right or Austria right MH okay and so um their Catholic relief service came back once they found they found somebody in Massachusetts okay Anonymous person they didn't want to so you didn't know them but they were willing to spons right we would thankful to him but we didn't know him okay was it also someone from your region we don't know okay yeah we don't know anything about it like I said he wanted to stay Anonymous okay but he sponsored the the family and then we came to the United States in uh in in 57 okay 1957 and you originally went to another state not Illinois no we went the sponsor had he must have been a businessman because he had a lot of contacts in Chicago okay so uh the U Catholic relief service already had six jobs for my dad lined up in Chicago okay that the sponsor had given him and the sponsor had uh paid for us to to stay at a hotel in Chicago till we get situated for a week or so okay and then we found a place to live and my dad found one of the jobs for other of the six he got you know and uh was that scary or exciting that was exciting that was exciting the scary part was behind us yeah you were leaving that and and I always all through all the things that I've gone through I've always known that God is behind me that God is always watching over me and and I had a very strong belief that the Lord is around me all the time and then as I as I got older I was thinking and I thought to myself oh my God you know that the bishop and the priest were very and our parents they were very brave that they um they risked their lives yeah right just for 10 kids to have their their confirmation you know and uh it it it was a very exciting time but a very scary time yeah okay so how old were you when you settled in Wooddale and at Holy Ghost Church yeah I I was already at that time I was 23 and I I was already married so my husband and me bought the house in woodell okay and and then we joined the Holy Ghost Church here and so that became where you you're still there today so yes right actually it was a little Countrywide Church you know Little Country Church that was white it wasn't the church that you see now now we have a beautiful surrounded Church okay so Katie you know I think your story is fascinating and it offers us a different perspective of course on how blessed we are all to have religious freedom and to participate in on the sacraments freely so you know again how do you think your childhood experiences have shaped your faith life now as an adult I think it it made it stronger I'm sure it it I mean I always believed that the God was watching over me and he was helping but now I kind of like I live it because I every day I think I I would not be able to carry on without God and out you know um I joined the discipleship in wooddell I go to um um scripture study you know and um I try to be involved with CCW and things like that you know well you're certainly putting your faith into action um thank you so much for there's one thing I forgot to say in the beginning that you know when the government uh was they can the priest especially the Catholics you know they and the doctors and the lawyers all the Learned people they really didn't want any people that that would uh uh oppose them in some way MH okay and I think the the our our um CL um young people that are looking forward to their confirmation they are so blessed that they don't have to go through when you did right that they can freely go to church they can pray they can help out in church reading or they can greet the people you know and and you regularly tell your story to the confirmand at your Parish right right I I I give them a little perspective on the gift that they're getting that you're right exactly that they're they're blessed and they're very um you know God watches over them and he's always with them so they remember the Lord is always there for sure yeah I mean your story has two takeaways for me just um certainly your faith is a gift um but it's also how important grandparents can be in shaping the faith of their grandchildren and and Elders in the church like yourself you know working with younger people I think that's great and then this gratitude that we should all feel for having the ability to worship and live out our Catholic faith freely I think you know most of us take that for granted and you give us that perspective that you know yes you know it's all of us are blessed that they can go to church whenever they want and they can pray whenever they want you know without anybody threatening them or scaring them you know and so we are very blessed very blessed people thank you again for telling us your story um so that you know that's it for this episode be sure to watch or listen every month as we'll launch new episodes every first Monday so be sure to tune in thanks for listening to the 75th anniversary edition of the faith into action podcast from the dicese of Joliet recorded here in our Studios at the Blanchet Catholic Center new episodes are released on YouTube and podcast platforms the first Monday of each month please remember to subscribe and share the good news of Jesus Christ may God bless you and[Music] yours