New migration fills British pulpits
Poland is bucking the Europe-wide decline in vocations, and its priests are in demand
Luke Harding in Krakow
Wednesday March 15, 2006
The Guardian

After working for 12 years in a village near Krakow, Richard Swider headed off last week to the airport. The 50-year-old Pole got on a Ryanair flight and two hours later arrived in Glasgow, en route to a new life in the north of Scotland.

He is not the proverbial Polish plumber. Instead of dealing with Britain's blocked U-bends, he has come to cater for a market that has opened up for Poland's ever-mobile population - pastoral care. Father Swider is one of dozens of priests arriving each month to look after British parishes, and to minister to the growing number of Polish migrant workers, because the supply of home-grown priests in Britain has dried up. "I'm happy because there is a big need," Father Swider said. "In Scotland I can serve God, the diocese, and the people. And it's interesting work." The rest