News

Bishop's mother dies Jan. 16

By Joanne Flemming
Compass Correspondent

	Related articles: from Jan. 27, 2006 issue: • Bridging the Gap by Bishop David Zubik --   Bridging the Gap: SHE LIVES! from Jan. 13, 2006 issue: • Bishop Zubik's mother dies (posted Jan. 18   as "New since the print edition" article)   Sidebar: Funeral plans from June 25, 2004 issue: • Bridging the Gap by Bishop David Zubik --   Welcoming God in Eucharist
	Bishop expresses gratitude in letter January 23, 2006 To my Green Bay Family, On behalf of my dad, Stanley, my mom's sister, Anne Raskosky, my mom's brother, John Raskosky, and in my own name, thank you so very much for all your support at the time of my mom's death. There will never be the appropriate words to express our gratitude for the great support we felt by your visits, cards, telephone calls, emails and so many other ways in which you showed your love for my mom at a time when we really need your support. My mom was my very best friend. There is a hole in my heart that will never be completely healed. If you have lost a significant loved one then you know what that means. As the days move ahead, please remember my family and me in your prayers as we adjust to my mom's new life and our loss here on earth. What a consolation it is to know that she now shares in the resurrection of Jesus who is our Savior. Grateful for our belief that "Nothing is Impossible with God," I am Your brother in Christ, [signed] Most Reverend David A. Zubik Bishop of Green Bay

Susan M. Zubik, 80, Green Bay, will be remembered as a "courageous" woman of "very strong faith" who trusted God especially in her battle with cancer.

She "was very best friend" to her son, Bp. David A. Zubik, who said: "We shared everything together. We were not just mother and son. We were not just friend-to-friend. I think we were also soul partners. We prayed together everyday."

Susan M. Zubik

Mrs. Zubik died Jan. 16. Her son celebrated the Mass of the Resurrection for her on Jan. 19 at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Green Bay, and the funeral Mass on Jan. 21 in Pennsylvania.

"She loved her son with a mother's love," said Sr. Mary Jo Kirt, OSF, parish director at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish, Hortonville, and a friend of Mrs. Zubik. "She worried about him never saying no, but yet she would want him to be there for people. She would want him to be so much for God and the church.

"I said to Bishop, 'Can you imagine her bragging to God about you?'" Sr. Kirt said. "And God would finally say to her, 'Enough already.'"

Bp. Zubik said his mother prayed the Liturgy of the Hours and the rosary with him daily. She also attended daily Mass.

"God was very real in her life," Bp. Zubik said. "My mother was never shy or afraid about letting God know what she thought. If she had a specific intention, she told God in plain language what it was she wanted and left it up to him.

"Each time she got a piece of bad news from the doctor, she gave God a piece of her mind," he continued, "and wasn't afraid to let him know how angry she was. She was a woman who also knew very much how to say thank you to God."

Sr. Kirt described Mrs. Zubik as "a very prayerful woman. She really did trust God and struggled in this sickness to be able to trust God. Ultimately (she) had to say to God, 'I give you everything that I am.'"

Bp. Zubik said his mother battled her cancer "with a great deal of hope. She was a real encouragement to me. Now she is my hero as well."

Mrs. Zubik was both "very loyal" and "very honest" with her friends, Sr. Kirt said. "She said exactly what she was thinking. She was very kind. She liked people to be treated well and equally."

She had a long list of people "for whom she prayed daily," Bp. Zubik said. "She kept people on her list for years because 'they need my prayers and I'm going to talk to God about them.'"

To relax at the end of each weekday, the Zubiks watched the late news. Then after the bishop's father, Stanley, went to bed, he and his mother watched David Letterman's program. On Sunday evenings the family enjoyed attending a "good movie," Bp. Zubik said. He said she loved Disney World and had vacationed there 11 years in a row.

Sr. Kirt said she and Mrs. Zubik were "shopping buddies, praying buddies, eating out on Friday night buddies, movie buddies." They talked on the phone almost every day and went out at least once a week.

To the end, she was a "diehard" Pittsburgh Steelers fan, said Bp. Zubik and Sr. Kirt. "No Packer would ever take its place," Sr. Kirt added.

Mrs. Zubik was born Feb. 26, 1925, in Ambridge, Pa., to John and Susan (Podhorin) Raskosky. She married Stanley Zubik on Jan. 22, 1949, at Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, Ambridge. She was a member of Good Samaritan Parish, Ambridge, and St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Green Bay.

Survivors include her husband, son; sister Anne Raskosky, Ambridge; brother, John (Viola) Raskosky, Sun City, Calif.; nieces and nephews, and special friends - Sr. Anne Green, CSJ, Ambridge; Dr. James "Skip" and Bernie McGovern, Green Bay; Sr. Mary Jo Kirt, Hortonville, and Dcn. Michael, Doris and Katie Vincent, Green Bay.

Mrs Zubik's body was returned to Pennsylvania on Jan. 20 for visitation Jan. 20-21 at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit, followed by the Mass of Christian Burial. Entombment was in the Chapel of Christ Our Savior Cemetery, Richland Township, Pa.