Wioleta Suzańska

"It was also a difficult time, because I was the only Evangelical girl in the classroom full of Catholics. I had a hard time because people didn't understand, and I don't blame them at all because it stemmed from ignorance, when the Catholic Church was the most important and people didn't know about other faiths. And in connection with that I was often humiliated, I heard insults and unpleasant comments. I'm surprised I endured it. When I think about it after all these years, I have to say that I wonder at the gift of the Holy Spirit that made me stay here, not change my religion, even though my father was Catholic. I was baptized in a Catholic church, and was actually pulling two magpies by the tail, as they say in Poland, because I used to go to the Catholic church because I was interested in it, but they didn't want me there because I kept asking questions. Because I had already had knowledge from the religion classes with the Evangelical pastors who came once a month, and I was still interested in certain differences, but the Catholic priests were not willing to answer. On the contrary they told me that it would be better for me not to go to religion classes, but I was sorry about that because the children were already preparing for Holy Communion, which was a big event. But I have to say that nobody forced me, they gave me the choice to go to First Holy Communion and to convert to the Catholic religion. I don't know how it happened that I said I didn´t want [to convert], that I wanted to stay, this is my home, here are my ancestors and this is my church, and so it happened that I stayed in Pstrążna and I am an evangelical."

"As time goes by, the differences and the dissimilarities of people fade. And what is interesting is that children are becoming a link. The children don't understand the situation, they want to play together, and so we can say that Czech and Polish families have been brought together by children. And that is also the beginning of coexistence, because the young people are growing up and they are starting to meet together, it doesn't matter if they are newcomers or natives. There are many examples of mixed marriages, even in my family or in Maria Wolská's family. It has become quite common."