DETROIT — A large black steed, a Tennessee Walking Horse, cantered back and forth across the fields of a farm outside Lima, Ohio. No saddle, bridle or bit adorned the beast ridden by the boy who would grow up to become the bishop of Providence.
“Bruce would just jump on and go” — a trait that hinted at his take-charge leadership style even as a youngster. Sister Mary Francis Lewandowski, CSSF, reflected on the childhood years of her brother, Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, via Zoom interview, particularly growing up on a horse farm with his three siblings. “I think he developed a relationship with her [the horse]. But it gives you a sense of who he is as a person … he’d just jump in.”
As oldest sisters are prone to, Sister Mary Francis handled most of the talking, describing their childhood years growing up in “a very close” family.
“Our parents would always say ‘You’re all you have to depend on,’” she remarked, adding that the siblings — herself, Bruce, Paula and Joe, also in attendance on the call — have always taken care of each other over the years. They were very close in age and spent countless hours together on the farm. The farm boasted horses, chickens, dogs and a big garden, according to Sister Mary Francis.
It was there that all of them, Bishop Lewandowski in particular, learned care of creation. All the siblings rode horses, playing games and charging their mounts from the back 40. Incidentally, Tennessee walkers are crossbreeds of Spanish Mustangs and the now-extinct Narragansett Pacer, linking the future bishop to his diocese and state decades before his appointment.
Sister Mary Francis described her brother as incredibly hands-on, down-to-earth and generous; the peacemaker of the family, as their late mother used to say. Joe added that he had always seen a deep spirituality in his older brother. “He went to seminary in ninth grade; that’s all I knew, me being five years younger,” Joe shared.
Spirituality
Their father, Robert, had served in the U.S. Army, and their “very Polish” family lived in Toledo — a heavily Polish area to which their ancestors had originally immigrated — before moving an hour south to the farm in Lima. There the children attended a school run by the Redemptorist Order, St. Gerard Catholic School, which dates to 1916.
“There were always a lot of priests and brothers and sisters in school and around school, and I think that’s probably what really attracted Bruce,” Sister Mary Francis said.
By the eighth grade, after those priests took a group of the middle school boys to visit the seminary, young Bruce knew what he wanted to become — a Redemptorist priest. Joe remarked that the future bishop “knew even before that” that he belonged in a Roman collar.
Sister Mary Francis recalled how the siblings “used to play Mass all the time” with their cousins at large family gatherings. Their great-aunt was a Sister of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio. It was while visiting the convent there that young Bruce depicted his future vocation.
The importance of the Mass was reinforced at St. Gerard school, where students attended once or twice a week, as well as Mother of Perpetual Help devotions with their mother. To this day, Bishop Lewandowski and Sister Mary Francis maintain a strong devotion to Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help. Sister Mary Francis explained that the familial devotion to this Marian apparition began in school, but the bishop continues to encourage it. “Whenever we have a family problem, or someone asks him to pray, it always starts with Mother of Perpetual Help.”
Her own vocation was inspired in part by that same great-aunt, who recommended her to the Felician sisters rather than the Franciscans. Due to Bishop Lewandowski’s influence, the new convent in Detroit is named for Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help.
To this day, Sister Mary Francis still sees her younger brother as the person who “helps us put things in perspective. Still a peacemaker, but maybe in a bigger scale, even now.”
Even with all his “fancy titles,” she says that “he’s really a down-to-earth kind of guy” and lives very simply. Joe said that Bishop Lewandowski “is not materialistic at all” and Sister Mary Francis joked that he’s probably been wearing the same jacket for 25 years.
Community
Aside from Bishop Lewandowski, the siblings settled close to their roots, with Sister Mary Francis living in Detroit and Joe and Paula in Ohio. The bishop visits his family as often as possible. These gatherings of siblings, three nieces, two nephews and three great-nieces are typically spearheaded by Joe and Bishop Lewandowski. He learned to cook at the hands of his mother, Frances Whitney, who passed away last year. Joe laughingly concurred that any family gathering includes copious amounts of pierogis, Polish sausage, and other ethnic foods. And that Bishop Lewandowski always brings the ice cream, his favorite treat.
Even though he was elevated to auxiliary bishop of Baltimore during the pandemic, the entire family came out to witness the blessed occasion. As they couldn’t go to dinner to celebrate, everyone brought food back to the house they rented and cooked a grand meal in newly ordained Bishop Lewandowski’s honor.
That close-knit family dynamic continues to the next generations. Sister Mary Francis stated: “Joe has really instilled that kind of relationship and thinking into his daughters. We are show-up people and so are they. It’s a family kind of trait, I think.”
A strong sense of community, planted within the family, was fertilized by the Redemptorists. Sister Mary Francis recalls how the entire family was involved at St. Gerard, particularly the annual festival.
Joe remembers doing missionary work alongside his industrious brother in the Dominican Republic, the Bronx and Harlem, along with volunteering through Habitat for Humanity.
This carried over into Bishop Lewandowski’s priesthood. “Lest you think that Bruce’s life as a priest is all on his own, it never is,” Sister Mary Francis said. “He’s not an on-your-own kind of guy, either.”
Joe concurred. “No, he’s very much about community and others.”
And when the bishop throws himself into a project, it is guaranteed that he will bring others along with him, Joe assured Rhode Island Catholic. Joe commented, “When you work with him in community … he’s with everybody. He’s right in the mix no matter what is going on.”
He is also quite the linguist, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, two languages that will help him assimilate into the culture of Rhode Island, some Vietnamese and Polish along with French-Creole.
Active engagement
“One thing about Bruce is he’s very hands-on with everything, and no matter what you’re doing, he’s not the type of person to stand by and supervise. He’s gotta be in it,” Joe said.
For example, the family reroofed their mother’s house in a weekend under Bishop Lewandowski’s supervision. And when that house needed new flooring, he undertook to complete the work in one day, with only the aid of Sister Mary Francis. He succeeded.
“We joke around at our house that our maintenance man is a bishop,” she said.
He’s very active even in the short weekends he can spare to visit each of his family’s homes. He cooks and cleans and fixes anything that needs repaired. He also brings that quality to his pastoral leadership.
“He’s in it every day, with everybody, helping and just being part of the community, being part of what everybody is doing,” Joe said. “I think it’s a huge attribute of his and contributes to his success.”
Through it all, the boy from Ohio remains humble about his efforts and his appointment to the Diocese of Providence as bishop.
“He is not the type of person to see all that and what he does and what the good is that he does, but I think other people see it. It resonates,” Joe continued.
With a ceaseless energy and deep sense of community, Bishop Lewandowski will certainly bring that take-charge attitude and spirituality to the Diocese of Providence.
Joe concluded with a chuckle, “Just add ice cream.”
