Growing up in western Poland during the Communist era, Henryk Cisowski first met Franciscans at the lively Catholic parish a block from his home.
The young, dynamic Capuchins took youths on bicycle pilgrimages, to summer camps, even formed a band. For Henryk, St. Anthony Church in his hometown of Nova Sol, Poland, became an oasis of freedom in a desert of totalitarianism.
“In the gray landscape of a Communist country, the church was a bright spot,” recalls Brother Henryk, the eldest of three children who spent many hours at the parish he described as a home away from home.
He likens his calling to that of the disciples Jesus called at Galilee. “Jesus didn’t tell them what would happen in their life. He somehow attracted them.” Similarly, “I was attracted by the Capuchins,” he recalls.
“I didn’t know much about St. Francis’ charism,” Brother Henryk continues. “I knew the Capuchins. And that was enough for me.” Those stirrings of a vocation would lead him to join the order in 1986 at age 20, professing his perpetual vows in 1987. The journey that followed would take many twists and unlikely turns, leading Brother Henryk from a seminary classroom to a soup kitchen, from professor to advocate for the poor, and from Krakow, Poland, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“I couldn’t imagine what would happen in my life,” he recalls of those early years. “I had my visions. But everything happened differently somehow.”
From Krakow to Rome and Back
After novitiate in a friary in eastern Poland, Brother Henryk continued his formation in Krakow for theological studies. He was ordained a priest in April 1993. At the time, the order planned to open a Capuchin seminary in Krakow.
Brother Henryk loved adventure and travel but had assumed he would be giving that up when he joined the order. After he served for a year in a parish in Krakow, however, his superiors sent him to the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. During seven years there, he studied languages in Austria and France, with a semester in Israel.
Upon returning, Brother Henryk became a professor of New Testament at the seminary. He lived at a friary in Krakow. The fall of Communism in 1989 brought religious freedom to Poland. However, it also spurred “an explosion of poverty,” Brother Henryk recalls. During the Communist era, the people had little, but enough to survive; in subsequent years, many lost their homes and livelihoods.
The shift was apparent at the friary in Krakow, where only seven or eight people had come asking for food in the past. “After 1989, we had hundreds. It was so many that we couldn’t enter our friary. They were blocking the door,” he recalls.
One of the friars built a “barracks,” a separate building where the friars would serve tea and sandwiches in the morning and in the afternoon. At the time, Brother Henryk had little interest in serving the poor, but he’d always had an aptitude for technical issues.
He noticed that volunteers heated the tea water in a large pot over a very small fire. At the time, everyone in Krakow boiled their water before consuming it. But the tea served to the poor was tepid at best.
From Tea Brewer to Friend of the Poor
“I was angry about that,” he recalls. “This was another ‘trap’ of the Lord, how he attracted me to the poor. It was not about my love for them, my desire to serve them. I wanted to improve the technical issue and make good tea for them.” And so he applied for a grant from the city and purchased a professional coffee and tea maker. “My first step toward the poor was as a tea brewer,” he recalls.
Just as St. Francis had not intended to go among the lepers, Brother Henryk “never imagined my life to be connected to the service of the poor.” Yet, gradually, the friar who spent his days in a seminary classroom found himself drawn to the men and women he passed on his way back to the friary.
A social worker who was a friend of the friars told them she appreciated their intentions but compared their approach to a “19th-century way of doing things,” Brother Henryk recalls. That sparked his ambitious side, driving him to convince his superiors to develop a professional center for assisting the homeless.
Collaborating with an attorney friend, Brother Henryk spent his “after-work” hours making the dream a reality. The Capuchins built two centers for the homeless. In Poland and other European countries, taxpayers can designate one percent of their taxes to a nonprofit organization. The Capuchins raised $6 million in 2008 alone for the homeless shelter by creating a computer program that set up their nonprofit as a default option. “I’m really proud of what we did,” he says. “I created this organization. But this organization also created me. It was a way for me to approach the poor.”
Before that, “I was afraid of the homeless people. I was polite to them. But I was keeping my distance.” As he became more involved at the center, the barriers gradually broke down and Brother Henryk grew to love the people and the work. He had begun working toward a new dream, a farm where the Capuchins and the homeless could grow their own food.
A Ministry in Milwaukee
Then came the unexpected. In 2017, his superiors transferred Brother Henryk to the parish in Krakow where he had begun his priestly ministry. His days were filled with celebrating Masses and hearing confessions—but he missed his ministry to the poor. Going from being a nationally known advocate for the poor to a parish priest was “humbling,” he recalls. It was also frustrating to be away from the ministry he had grown to love.
In 2012, Brother Henryk had met the Capuchins in the Province of St. Joseph in Milwaukee during a visit to learn more about Capuchin Community Services (CapuchinCommunityServices.org), which operates the largest food pantry in the city. Two years later, the Milwaukee Capuchins had invited him to join them, but he was far too busy in Poland at the time.
In 2021, the Milwaukee Capuchins contacted Brother Henryk again. This time he said yes, though he warned them that he was older and had recently had knee replacement surgery. “But they wanted me anyway,” recalls Brother Henryk, who had longed to return to ministry with the poor. “I considered it a rescue mission.”
When he arrived, Brother Henryk spent his days serving meals, sorting clothing donations, pouring coffee. “My pride suffered a little,” says the former CEO. However, soon he relished those simple interactions.
In 2024, the Capuchins asked Brother Henryk to become director of Capuchin Community Services. The work has been challenging at times but deeply rewarding.
A Source of Renewal
Recently, he had a bad day, marked by administrative snafus and other issues. That evening, he joined the guests for dinner and encountered a man named David who had repeatedly asked him for a winter coat. Brother Henryk walked him over to the clothing closet. They found a recently donated green coat.
“He was so happy. He started crying. He was hugging me, saying, ‘I love you, I love you so much,’” recalls Brother Henryk. All the stress of the day fell away. Looking back on his ministry, he has seen time and again how these simple interactions have transformed him. “Pope Francis said, ‘Be close to the poor’,” says Brother Henryk. “They are like a source of life.”
