Pinkowski Files

Kubik, Very Rev. Matthew J.
Priest, Polish National Catholic Church
(Jan. 25, 1922 -- Nov. 24, 2009)
Priest. When Matthew J. Kubik was growing up in Southampton, Ware, Holyoke, and other places on both sides of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, his playmates would sometimes depend upon the churches their parents attended. Before he was born on a farm in Southampton, his father, Michael Kubik, who came from the Austrian section of Poland in 1912, married a girl he met in Chicopee and joined Holy Mother of the Rosary parish, one of the oldest parishes in the Polish National Catholic Church in America. His membership in an independent church was frowned upon to a certain extent by members of Roman Catholic parishes. The hostility between St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic Church and Holy Mother of the Rosary in Chicopee divided families for generations. The three children of Michael and Mary Kubik were forbidden to play with those of the rival church in their time.
Matthew Kubik made up his mind early in life that he would reach out to others, whether they were friends or foes, and play with everybody. It paid off when he graduated from Holyoke High School. He was the valedictorian of his graduating class. After he was ordained to the priesthood on Nov. 10, 1952, he said his first Mass at St. Valentine's PNC Church in Northampton, Massachusetts, Nov. 23, 1952, and was then assigned to Holy Trinity PNC Church at Lackawanna, New York. The following year he married the 19-year old daughter of a well-known Polish family in Lackawanna, Marian Owczarczyk, with whom he had three children, and was in charge of pastoral work at Holy Trinity until he retired August 1, 2007. He did his work well.
The only thing he knew about Lackawanna in 1952 was that it had the greatest individual steel plant in the world on 1500 acres of land on Lake Erie. When it was first settled, Seneca Indians were still around, and as it expanded the area became known as West Seneca. The facilities along Lake Erie attracted the attention of the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Co. in Scranton, Pa., and, beginning in 1901, it moved both men and machines to West Seneca. The first two blast furnaces were blown in 1903. As time passed, the steel plant grew bigger and bigger. In 1909, West Seneca was divided to form the city of Lackawanna.
Holy Trinity parish was organized on March 1, 1929, by steel workers who were transferred from Scranton, where they were members of the St. Stanislaus parish, to new jobs at Lackawanna, N. Y. The cornerstone of the first edifice was laid on June 1, 1930, between Our Lady of Victory Basilica and St. Hyacinth's R. C. Church.
Due to Father Kubik's efforts the name of the street on which the church stood was changed to Pulaski after the Polish hero of the American Revolution, whom he admired, and, unfortunately, at the time of his death the church was for sale. The parish built a modern church, with three bells hanging on two metal poles in front of it, in another section of Lackawanna.
Throughout his years in Lackawanna Father Kubik seldom missed a public affair in the Polish community. Gentle, kind, unassuming as a child, yet there was something about his manners and bearing that was priestly and grand. He was an example not only to the people for whom he labored, but also to priests, politicians, and leaders with whom he was associated. It was my good fortune to meet him at a banquet of Am-Pol Eagle, Buffalo's only Polish weekly, when I was honored as the 1999 National Citizen of the Year in recognition of my contributions to American society. He was honored in 1980 by the same newspaper for his work in spreading Polish culture. He was pastor of souls for 57 years in Lackawanna, 38 years in Black Rock, and part of that time in Niagara Falls. He will be remembered for his years in the priesthood.
Author: Edward Pinkowski (2009)

Holy Trinity Church