A POLISH priest may be flown to the region to minister to the growing number of worshippers from the former Eastern Bloc country.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, the Right Reverend Bishop Kevin Dunn, has revealed he is in talks with counterparts in Poland.

The news comes as many churches across the region are seeing their congregations added to with migrant workers from the devoutly Catholic country.

Although it is hard to get an exact figure, it is believed hundreds of Polish people regularly attend Masses across the region.

Many churches have already taken steps to make Polish people more welcome.

Churches in Sedgefield, Bowburn and Trimdon, County Durham, print translations of Masses in Polish for families in the congregation.

A monthly Mass is also being held entirely in Polish in Sunderland.

Bishop Dunn said that of the 180 parishes in the diocese, many had one or two Polish members in the congregation and some had many more.

He said: "I have done a very unscientific trawl through the parishes and it has revealed significant pockets of Polish workers appearing at different parts of the diocese.

"I have been in contact with Polish bishops to see if we can find a Polish priest to come into the diocese and work with us.

"The Catholic Church has always been a been a migrant church, when the Irish workers came here and so on.

"This is about responding to the needs of the new migrants in the community and being a bridge into the local community."

Father Jan Milcz, 80, came to this country with the Polish army in 1946, and was ordained 41 years ago.

He lives at St Benet's Monastery, in Sunderland, and takes a Mass in Polish at 4pm on the last Sunday of each month in St Mary's Church, Bridge Street.

Fr Milcz said: "I started taking Mass in Polish a few months ago after I was asked by some Polish people.

"The attendance is very good, although it could be better. A lot of the people here work different shifts and sometimes they cannot come to Mass.

"I am thinking of perhaps coming to some other places like Darlington, where there are a lot of Polish people, to do a Polish Mass."

l The Northern Echo has launched a Polish language column for the estimated 7,000 Polish people living in south Durham.

The column appears every Thursday and is also available online at www.thenorthern echo.co.uk/news/echopolnocy