By decree of Bishop Józef Gawlina – who by virtue of the decree of Pope Pius XII of October 3, 1942, was appointed bishop ordinary for Polish civilian refugees in the East and served as field bishop of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (which also included the Polish Army in the East) – Father Kazimierz Bober-Bobrowski was appointed rector of the Polish Catholic Mission in India on October 1, 1943. In this way, the Polish Catholic Mission was initiated in India, with its headquarters in Bombay. (The function of rector was held by Father Bober-Bobrowski until October 3, 1945, then temporarily by Father Jan Przybysz – as acting rector, and in October 1946 by Father Kazimierz Kozłowski, who held it until his departure in January 1948, when the Polish Catholic Mission in India practically ceased to exist.)

Pastoral care provided to all Poles residing in India in the years 1942-1948 included in Bombay officials of Polish authorities and diplomatic missions (Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, Delegation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Delegation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Enlightenment, Delegation of the Polish Red Cross), patients in the Polish Red Cross Hospital funded by the War Relief Services -National Catholic Welfare Conference, and Poles in all refugee centers in India. It also extended to soldiers of Polish origin fighting in English units in Burma and sailors of Polish ships calling at the port of Bombay. The scope of pastoral care also included establishing Catholic associations and organizations, visits to religious education in schools of all types in Polish settlements and visiting scout units.

The Polish Catholic Mission was therefore supervised by the parish priest in the Valivade settlement – ​​Father Leopold Dallinger. He held this position from March 1943 to November 1947, so it is worth taking a closer look at him. He was born in 1884 in Horodenka, in Podolia. He graduated from high school in Kolomyia and studied theology at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. He was ordained a priest in 1908. Until the outbreak of the Great War, he was a vicar in parishes in the South-Eastern Borderlands (then in the Austrian partition). During the Second Polish Republic, he was a catechist in secondary schools in Kolomyia. During the Soviet occupation, after the annexation of half of Poland by the USSR in 1939, on April 13, 1940, together with thousands of his compatriots, he was deported to Kazakhstan – at his own request, because he did not want to leave his family and the people who were also arrested at that time.

Since December 1941, i.e. after the so-called amnesty for Polish exiles, announced in August 1941 as a result of the July agreements between the Polish government in London and Moscow, Father Dallinger served as chaplain of Anders’ army (also created as a result of these agreements, i.e. the Sikorski-Mayski agreement and the decree issued on August 14, 1941 on the creation of the Polish army in the USSR). After leaving the Soviet Union in 1942, he stayed in Iran. In January 1943 he was on leave, and two months later he was already in India. In Valivade he became deeply involved in pastoral work, and within its framework, first he had to establish, among other things, a church for Polish refugees.

The church in the estate, which was soon to become its heart, was built (in fact, it was built after the reconstruction of one of the barracks) and furnished with public donations. The church construction committee, under the leadership of engineer Jan Pacak, began work in October 1943. This is how a small church was created, with a turret-bell tower decorated with a clock and shooting out above the roofs of the barracks. It towered over the entire estate. The interior of the church was lined with gray canvas, the altar on a platform, separated from the rest of the church. Traces of anonymous human sacrifice were visible at every step. High above the entrance was the inscription: “God save Poland.” In the main altar there was a painting of St. Andrew Bobola (the church operated under his name), and in the right side altar there was a reproduction of Murillo’s Florentine Madonna with Child. Fresh flowers always decorated the altars. Here young people gathered for great celebrations, here young couples promised each other undying love, here baptisms took place, children received the sacrament of communion, here confirmation ceremonies took place. Here they also said goodbye to their loved ones, and many hours in solitary prayer were spent by mothers and wives whose sons and husbands were taking part in combat operations – they thanked for every sign of life, bowed in silence when undelivered letters returned. Here, finally, many young people made choices that often decided their entire lives, got married.

The cycle of the liturgical year, rich in traditional services and celebrations, began with Advent Rorate Mass and was observed in the Valivada church with great piety, with the participation of the residents of the estate. The church often resounded with singing, joint prayer and, in the setting of Polish tradition, went outside in a colourful procession. Rorate Mass and retreats, and later Christmas Eve and Christmas gathered a lot of believers. The Midnight Mass was no different – an outdoor mass, because in India the climate allowed for outdoor worship at that time; besides, the temple could not accommodate all the believers – to which crowds came. The period of Lent is another time of retreats and often forty-hour services.

Catholic organizations, such as the Marian Sodality, and others, such as the Scouts, took an active part in the Holy Week ceremonies. Easter, like other holidays, was celebrated solemnly, with no shortage of patriotic accents, references to the war situation in Poland, and concern for the fate of the homeland. Polish soldiers dying on many fronts were not forgotten. Similarly, during other services, in May, June…, during indulgence ceremonies, etc. For example, on May 17, 1945, a thanksgiving service was held for the liberation from German captivity (to which he was taken after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944) of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces and commander of the Home Army – General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, the day before, a similar ceremony was held in the large square in front of the church on the occasion of the liberation from the hands of the Germans of Cardinal August Hlond – the then Primate of Poland, who was arrested by the Gestapo in France in 1944 and interned.

The November Day of the Dead began on All Saints’ Day with vespers at the cemetery in Kolhapur, not far from Valivade, and the lighting of candles on the graves. In the evening, funeral vespers were held in the church of the estate, a procession to the symbolic Uprising Grave (made by the estate’s residents to commemorate the victims of the Warsaw Uprising) was held and exequies were held there. On All Saints’ Day, the families of those who died in India went to the cemetery. Polish graves shone with lights on that day. In the evening, a painful roll call ceremony was held at the foot of the symbolic Uprising Grave. Funeral services on All Souls’ Day gathered the entire population of the estate. Evenings dedicated to the deceased were held in the community centers. The newspaper “Polak w Niech” (Pole in India), published at the time, wrote in 1947: “Around 80 graves will remain after us in the Christian cemetery in Kolhapur. All of them now have stone slabs and tablets. The last eight graves were tidied up by the joint efforts and expense of several local social organizations. During this year’s All Souls’ Day, there were no more abandoned and neglected graves among our graves. Even on those graves whose caretakers had left India, candles lit by girl scouts were burning. Two teams of girl scouts went to the cemetery in Kolhapur for this purpose. The graves were decorated with flowers. Perhaps this is the last service rendered to the graves of our deceased, because we will soon be leaving India.”

But religious life in Valivade, as in other refugee centers for Poles in India, was not only focused on the church, traditional services and paths of personal piety. Religious organizations, gathering both youth and adults, developed very richly and diversified.

These included: the Marian Sodality (separately for men and women), the Eucharistic Crusade, the Living Rosary, altar boys’ circles and Catholic Action. This was the result of the extensive work of the Polish Catholic Mission, which was so effective that many Poles in India discovered their vocations during the war years – priestly and religious. Young Polish boys left the subcontinent for the United States to the seminary (in Orchard Lake), girls to religious orders (e.g. to the Bernardine or Salesian congregations). The largest number of volunteers were recruited from the Valivade settlement, but young Polish refugees from other centers – in the Country Club and Balachadi – also volunteered to leave. It is worth emphasizing that Zygmunt Peszkowski, involved as a scoutmaster in scouting activities in the settlement, also ended up in Orchard Lake (in Michigan). He studied at the theological seminary there.