On October 12, 2020, a Pro Polonia Foundation Founders’ Council meeting was held in the Auditorium Maximum of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The meeting attended founders appointed by notarial deed: Rev. Prof. Ryszard Czekalski, Rector of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw; Dariusz Piotr Bonisławski, President of “Wspólnota Polska” [Polish Community] Association and Andrzej Kraśnicki, President of the Polish Olympic Committee. The Founders’ Assembly appointed Prof. Henryk Skarżyński as President of the Foundation’s Board.

As the name suggests, the Foundation is created with the Polish diaspora [Polonia] in mind, and it aims to strengthen cooperation with the Polish diaspora and Poles living abroad. They are already more than 20 million people, most of whom maintain or want to maintain contact with their homeland.

– We want to develop broad cooperation among the Polish diaspora and Poles living abroad – from educational, cultural, through religious, economic, to sports or tourist areas – said during the inauguration of the academic year and on the day the Foundation was established, the Rector of UKSW, Rev. Prof. Ryszard Czekalski. We will support the integration of the Polish community abroad and bilateral contacts: between Polish society, mainly young people, academic circles, and the Polish communities and Poles living abroad. Our university will play an essential role in these activities because we have good contacts with Polish Catholic Missions as a university that represents Christian values. Through missions and parishes, which are often centers of Poles abroad’s religious and cultural life, we can establish cooperation with many Polish communities abroad.

The Foundation will support, among other things, scientific research related to the Polish diaspora, support the exchange between the country and the Polish communities and Poles living in different parts of the world, as well as, deepening of knowledge: in the country about the compatriots living outside the country, while for the Polish communities abroad about the country of origin. The strategic project of the Foundation to establish the Polish Diaspora Academy enables to benefit from the intellectual potential of Polish scientists and support Poles scattered around the world.

Moreover, the founders asked His Eminence Kazimierz Cardinal Nycz, Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw, to become Honorary Patron of the Pro Polonia Foundation, and His Eminence accepted the honor.