06/21/2026
Across generations and across continents, the influence of a faithful priest is often measured not in what is built, but in the lives quietly shaped through years of accompaniment. This Father's Day, we remember Servant of God, Father Joseph Walijewski, Father Sebastian Kolodziejczyk, and Monsignor Joseph Hirsch – three priests whose spiritual fatherhood has touched communities across Bolivia, Wisconsin, Peru, and beyond.
Father Joe's path as a missionary priest was marked by one constant – wherever he went, he lived among the people he served, in daily life, in struggle, and in hope.
Families turned to him when they had nowhere else to go. People found in him an example of what a life given to God and others could look like. The communities he served came to understand that human dignity was not simply preached – it was experienced in the way Father Joe treated them each day.
At Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II, his presence shaped the home itself. He was not an administrator who visited, but a father who stayed. The children who grew up there knew they were seen and loved by a man who had given his life to them.
That example did not end with Father Joe. It was handed on.
Before his priesthood, Father Sebastian came to Casa Hogar as a missionary volunteer and maestro, serving alongside Father Joe in the daily life of the mission before entering seminary. What he witnessed there shaped everything that followed. A priesthood lived close to the poor and fully present to each person became the model he carried into his own vocation.
In 2000, Father Sebastian returned to Peru as a priest and became director of Casa Hogar. For more than thirteen years, he continued the mission with the same faithfulness he had witnessed firsthand, deepening relationships within the community and building upon the foundation already laid.
Today, Monsignor Hirsch continues that mission as director of Casa Hogar. His ministry extends beyond its walls into surrounding communities affected by natural disaster and extreme poverty. Through relief efforts and accompaniment, he has helped ensure the mission responds not only to the children at Casa Hogar, but to families outside it who have nowhere else to turn.
In doing so, he fosters what might be called a mission within the mission. The children of Casa Hogar do not simply witness service – they participate in it. By serving others in need, they begin to understand that their own lives are a call to mission.
These three priests reveal the same mission carried forward across different times and places. Father Joe laid the foundation. Father Sebastian used what he had learned from Father Joe and built a team through his leadership. Monsignor Hirsch continues it today, connecting Casa Hogar to the wider needs of surrounding communities with the same spirit from which it began.
We give particular thanks for these three men, who embraced their spiritual fatherhood in the truest sense – giving themselves to the people God placed in their care.. Their example reminds us that fatherhood is not defined only by biological family, but by the willingness to give oneself to others. We are grateful for all who embrace that calling, and especially for all our priests who carry it forward each day through their ministry and service.
