Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Janus, Jozef

Polish chaplain; born Nowy Sacj, Poland, 2 February 1911; died Melbourne, 24 July 1980, aged 69.

Joe Janus was a most highly respected chaplain to the Polish community in Melbourne from 1951. He was a true father to his people. He was a silent man, but not a quiet man. He was jovial and outgoing, but about himself, his work, his people, he was guarded and silent, with that reserve which grows in people who have lived in a land of spies and secret police.

He was not very open about his early life. He entered the noviciate at Starawies, 17 September 1928. After his studies of philosophy he was placed in charge of the printing and publication of all the Jesuit publications in Poland. This was not the occupation to hold when enemies abounded.

The first attack came from Nazi Germany, and Janus was forced to move from house to house. The second attack came from the Russians. During a raid between two and three o'clock in the morning Janus was taken prisoner to Russia. In jail he was submitted to humiliations and torture. Eventually he was taken to Siberia to a slave camp, which contained about 25,000 people. His section had 1300 men who were forced to find what food was available. At the end of ten months only 300 were still alive. He survived by eating rats.

When Russia joined the Western nations it found itself an ally of Poland and was obliged to free its Polish prisoners. However, only a few were released, and Janus was among them. Upon release he was drafted into the Polish army, but was permitted to continue his Jesuit studies. He did this at the Jesuit University of St Joseph in Beirut, where he was ordained in 1944. He was soon sent to Uganda where he administered pastorally to a camp of 20,000 Polish civilian exiles.

From the very beginning of his priestly life he showed great concern for orphans. Even at Beirut he took orphaned boys under his fatherly care. Karol Woytyla, later Pope John Paul II, was one of his younger Polish friends.

In Uganda he added Swahili to the list of foreign languages that he spoke with fluency. From Uganda he was sent to England where he acted as chaplain to the Polish soldiers. Then he went to Florence for his tertianship, after which he worked at the Vatican radio.

After meeting the Australian provincial, Austin Kelly, in Rome, Janus accepted an invitation to go to Australia to care for the Polish refugees in Melbourne, a task he accomplished with great success for nearly 30 years.

He was sent first to Hawthorn, but then established within the parish of Richmond a Polish Centre in Clifton Street. To his people, Janus was a father, interpreter and agent in dealings with government and civil bureaucracies, helping them with problems of employment and health. He had to secure their civil rights in their dealings with employers and state authorities. He was also a support to fellow migrant chaplains who needed psychological, spiritual and material support.

Janus set up a house at Torquay where Polish priests might go for a day or for a short period of respite or meet to discuss their needs.

Migrant chaplains in Australia were not usually readily accepted into the local community because they, and their people, were different and did not fit into established patterns. Joe Janus was a rock to which others clung and he became a spokesman not only for the Polish priests but for other migrant chaplains as well.

He had a strong sense of national solidarity, as did the early Irish priests for their people. He wanted a school for the children. He brought the Polish Sisters of the Resurrection to Australia and set up another Polish centre in Essendon. First of all it was an orphanage, but later he added a Polish school.

Janus raised the money for all these projects and worked tirelessly as counsellor and priest, but all the time he suffered precarious health that frequently forced him into hospital, even for long periods. Early on, Janus established a printery and a Polish Catholic paper at his Richmond centre. He also showed constant concern for orphans, especially one boy taken under his care when the boy's mother died. The boy was sent to Xavier College and the university. Later Janus bought him a new car and put property into his name as a guarantee in the event of his own death. The young man was a credit to his foster father and became a radiologist.

Struggling against ill health and overwhelming work, Janus anxiously sought Jesuit assistance. Eventually, two Polish scholastics, Leonard Kiesch and Wieslow (Tony) Slowik came to Australia and completed their theological studies at Parkville. After ordination they joined Janus at Richmond. Zymunt Nowicki later joined them.

He did not always appear to receive the support of Jesuit superiors. Upon his return to Rome from Siberia, the general asked him if he had kept up his particular examen. Janus replied that it had been rather hard to stay alive. The general commented that it had also been difficult living in the Curia too: the lift had not been working. His final vows were postponed, not because of any noticeable fault, but because he had not been living more than ten years in Jesuit houses - he had been on the run or in Siberia!

Janus was no petty man and adjusted himself to the ways of the Society, just as he had done in changing circumstances in the world. However, when an important principle was at stake, nothing would move him. When the liturgical changes occurred after the Vatican Council, he decided that his people needed stability rather than change and continued to say the Polish Mass in Latin with his back to the people.

After a long illness and suffering a number of strokes, Janus was taken to St Raphael's hospital, shared with the Faithful Companions of Jesus in the grounds of Genazzano, Kew. There he died after four days.

Josef Janus was not a man with whom to quarrel. He did not raise his voice in anger, but he never pulled his punches. He was gruff and obdurate with his people but in a way that never clouded his sincerity and fatherly love. His people packed the Church of St Ignatius, Richmond, for the two Masses of Requiem.

Polish priests came from all over Australia to join the 20 Jesuits and other priests who concelebrated his funeral Mass. The cortege, split and interrupted by traffic, extended all the way from the Church to the Jesuit plot at the Boroondara cemetery, Kew. His people showed their gratitude for his giving them so much help in their new land.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)