28 Vol. LIX, No. 1 Magnificat the moral decay of society. After much thought and prayer, they resolved to leave everything behind in order to provide their beloved children with a fundamentally Christian and evangelical education. The children arrived in St. Jovite in July 1967. After settling their affairs, the parents joined them at the beginning of September. The maternal grandparents, especially the children’s grandmother, panicked. Urged on by an ill-informed and zealous priest, they filed a complaint with the Canadian authorities. At the end of September, without any warning whatsoever, a large-scale police raid of the Mother House took place before daybreak. Immigration and Social Welfare officers forcibly removed four of the Bugajski children3 and placed them in a rather inhospitable foster home, where they would suffer greatly from the neglect of their apparent benefactors. The father was absent that day. How deeply distressed he was when he learned that his children had been kidnapped! He did all he could to find a competent lawyer; the children’s maternal grandmother covered all the costs. During the legal proceedings, the parents were occasionally granted brief interviews with their children. Very discreetly, Mr. Bugajski gave each one of them Holy Communion, whispering a few pious invocations in their ears... At last their case was won! After five long months which seemed like years, the family was able to live together again in the Monastery of the Apostles. The parents’ faith, so sorely tested, had not been shaken. A providential asset In 1967 the Community was still in its infancy, and Harry Bugajski’s expertise in electronics was highly appreciated... all the 3. The agents, unable to find the oldest boy, could not take him. The youngest had not yet been born. more so because the new recruit had an exceptional spirit of poverty. He had a knack for repairing household appliances of all sorts with the few resources available, reviving machines that had apparently long outlived their usefulness. He set up a radio system on an AM frequency, enabling religious services to be broadcast throughout the Monastery. Always with the aim of meeting the Community's needs economically, he invented all kinds of devices, such as battery chargers that did not even exist at the time. He resurrected old 1950s refrigerators and freezers, some of which continue to funcMr. and Mrs. Bugajski – 1971 The family at prayer in the Chapel of Jesus Crucified at the Monastery of the Magnificat.
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