The Carmelite Order that was established at the break of the 12th century on Mount Carmel from the beginning of its existence was connected with the Latin Church, as the crusaders from Europe who wanted to coexist with Islam were the first Carmelites. Also today the Order is especially present in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, making sure that the Latin Church exists there, which is testified among others by the fact that four of the twelve bishops of the Latin Conference of the Arab Countries Episcopate are discalced Carmelites. Also Polish discalced Carmelites joined the pastoral work among Catholics in Iraq and Kuwait. It was work in particular parts of the liturgical year and it was directed to Polish workers who had jobs there. In 1978-1983 in Iraq Fathers Klaudiusz Spyrka, Michał Machejek, Jan Kanty Stasiński and Stefan Skórnóg worked, and in 1995-2007 in Kuwait Fathers Szczepan T. Praśkiewicz, Wiesław Kiwior, Damian Wacławik, Ernest Zielonka, Malachiasz Trzęsicki, Jerzy Zieliński and Grzegorz Firszt did. Although Poles have their share in building universal civilization and as John Paul II’s natives they exert apostolic influence also in Arab countries, the impression one gets in those countries is depressing. With the deluge of Islam, followers of Christ are ever more pushed into the background and their number keeps decreasing. The presence of Carmelites on missions in those countries has clear signs of kenosis – humiliation, in the likeness of Christ’s kenosis. However, one may hope that this humiliation for Gospel will some time bear fruit in the form of resurrection according to the example set by Jesus, who after Good Friday’s humiliation was exalted by God above everything else and was given a name above every name (Phil 2, 9).
After the Second World War several Polish Discalced Carmelites and chaplains of the Polish Army came to the United States. They put into practice, so to say, St. Rafał Kalinowski's dream when they established a monastery in 1950 in Hammond, from where they moved after two years to Munster in the diocese of Gary. Here they immediately began their pastoral ministry among the Polish community in Chicago. They built the well-known Sanctuary of the Mother of God of the Scapular. In the sanctuary park they erected a grotto to the Mother of God from Lourdes. Around the altar they placed urns with the ashes of the captives and prisoners murdered in the concentration camps in Poland and Soviet forced-labour camps. Moreover, in later years a monument of Christ the King was erected, a mountain chapel of Christ as the Man of Sorrows and the Our Lady of Ludźmierz, a monument of St. Teresa of the Baby Jesus, a monument of St. Maximilian Kolbe, and Our Lady of Ostra Brama chapel. After Kardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected to Peter's See they decorated the Papal Room with a monument of the Holy Father, organised a photo exhibition with all his apostolic trips abroad, and built St. Rafał Kalinowski Home of Encounters. John Paul II especially distinguished the Carmelite Sanctuary in Munster. In 2004 he gave it a rosary made of pure gold with a respective document in which we read: „To Our Lady of Ludźmierz, the Gaździna of Podhale worshipped in the Carmelite sanctuary in Munster, the patroness of the Society of Podhalanie in North America I offer this gold rosary as a votive – the filial chain with which Mary binds us with Jesus. (...) All worshippers of the Mother of Christ, pilgrims arriving at the Carmelite Sanctuary in Munster – the American Ludźmierz I give my apostolic blessing from the bottom of my heart”. There were numerous pastoral and patriotic initiatives offered to Chicago Polonia by the Carmelite Sanctuary in Munster. The list includes care for pilgrims, pastoral care in neighbouring parishes, Polish weekend pastoral care, St. Rafał Kalinowski Polish School was run, Polish Millennium Choir, establishment of the John Paul II Society, and a Polish-speaking group of the Lay Discalced Carmelites. What is more, in autumn 2003 the Discalced Carmelites from Munster, in order to meet the needs of our fellow Poles living in the suburbs of Chicago in Des Plaines and the vicinity, conducted regular pastoral care in St. Zechariahs' church. In August of the following year they took parochial pastoral care at St. Kamil's church in Chicago. For many years, the monks from Munster conducted regular pastoral care in St. Bronon's parish in Chicago, and later in St. Priscilla's church. The most important initiative of the Polish Carmelites in Munster, however, was their settlement in the end of the 1980s in Korona in Florida and the establishment of a Polish sanctuary in St. Joseph's church. The Polish Discalced Carmelites, the spiritual sons of the great Spanish mystics, Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, and fellow brothers of St. Rafał Kalinowski carried out the charisma of their order. Being aware of the signs of time and place, they do not spare hard work to minister to their fellow Poles spread all over the world, of which the United States of North America is the best example. Thereby the Polish monks fulfil the instructions of the Venerable John Paul II and the Papal Council for the Pastoral Care for Migrants and Travellers.
In the 20th century Polish Discalced Carmelites joined pastoral service among Poles abroad. Numerous monks worked in the United States in the towns of Munster, Korona in Florida and in Chicago. In the first half of the 1980s they started work in Iraq. In the 1990s they organized pastoral service in Kuwait. In 2005 Carmelites marked their presence in Ireland by numerous initiatives, among them being a symposium that presented St Rafał Kalinowski to the Irish and discussed the theological aspects of his spirituality. The presence of Polish Carmelites in different parts of the world was also shown during the celebrations of 400 years of presence of this order in Poland.
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