Pope to beatify a priest and 15 nuns all martyred during World War II

 

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Pope recognizes martyrdom of priest, 15 nuns killed during World War II

Pope Francis authorizes the promulgation of several decrees recognizing the martyrdom of a priest guillotined in Nazi Germany and 15 German-born nuns killed in the Soviet Union, as well as miracles attributed to three Venerables.

By Vatican News

Among the soon-to-be Beatified are 16 martyrs, killed out of hatred for the faith under Nazism and Soviet communism. The group includes a priest guillotined in Nazi Germany and 15 nuns of German origin killed by soldiers of the Red Army or who died in concentration camps in Soviet Russia.

On Thursday, Pope Francis met with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the decrees related to 25 Catholic women and men.

The decrees include recognition of the martyrdom of 15 German-born women religious who were serving in Poland during the invasion by the Red Army.

Sr. Christophora Klomfass and her 14 companions of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr (CSC) died in 1945.

The nuns were killed out of hatred for the faith by Soviet soldiers, enduring rape, torture, and death due to hardship, maltreatment, or diseases in concentration camps in Soviet Russia. As a fierce sign of contempt for the Christian faith, their tormentors often cut and tore their religious clothing.

A priest for peace and ecumenism during Hitler's time

Fr. Max Josef Metzger, a German diocesan priest and founder of the Secular Institute Societas Christi Regis, was killed on April 17, 1944, in Nazi Germany.

The priest was active in pacifist and ecumenical movements, and in 1917 he founded the Universal Peace League of the White Cross. Ten years later, he participated as a Catholic observer at the Lausanne Assembly, which gave rise to the Ecumenical Council of Churches.

Upon the rise of Nazism, he spoke out openly against Hitler. He was first arrested in 1939 and a second time in 1943.

Sentenced to death, he was guillotined on April 17, 1944, in the Brandenburg-Görden prison. He was aware that his commitment to peace and ecumenism, as well as his refusal of the Nazi regime in the name of Christ, could cost him his life.

The other future Beatified

Pope Francis also recognized miracles attributed to the intercession of three Venerables, clearing the way for their beatification.

Among the future new Beatified is also the Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Stephane Douayhy, Lebanese, who lived in the 17th century (1630-1704). He performed an intense work of assistance to the poor and in favor of ecumenical dialogue between East and West.

The Pope also cleared the way for the beatification of Venerable José Torres Padilla, a Spanish diocesan priest, co-founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross (1811-1878), and Venerable Camillo Costa de Beauregard, a French diocesan priest (1841-1910), nicknamed the "father of orphans" for founding the Le Bocage orphanage in Chambery.

Seven new Venerables

The seven new venerables are:

-  Geervaghese Thomas Panickaruveetil Mar Ivanios, Archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, founder in 1919 of the Congregations of the Order of the Imitation of Christ Bethany Ashram and the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ Bethany Madhom, a pioneer of ecumenism in India and first bishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church;

-  Brazilian Fr. Liberio Rodrigues Moreira, (1884-1980) who spent his life for the sick and the poor and lived with deep Christian spirit the trials of life, tireless adorer of the Eucharist;

-  Professed layman Antonio Tomičić, (1901-1981) a Croatian of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, who during the years of communism, when wearing religious signs in public provoked ridicule and hostility, never took off his habit, enduring public insults and persevering, with firm trust in the Lord, in his quest for the needs of the brothers;

-  Italian laywoman and mother Maddalena Frescobaldi Capponi, (1771-1839) founder of the Congregation of the Passionist Sisters of St. Paul of the Cross;

-  Maria Alfinda Hawthorne, (1851-1926) founder of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Rose of Lima, born in the mid-19th century to a Protestant family in the US state of Massachusetts and became Catholic in Europe along with her husband, from whom she separated due to his alcoholism, then dedicating herself to the service of Christ in cancer patients;

-  Angelina Pirini, (1922-1940) lay leader of the parish Catholic Action in Celle di Sala di Cesenatico in Emilia Romagna died in 1940;

-  Elisabetta Jacobucci, (1858-1939) professed sister of the Institute of the Alcantarine Franciscan Tertiaries, lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. She was always willing to accept the most humble tasks, and managed to combine the ascetic aspect of the contemplation of the Passion with an intense charitable apostolate for orphans and the elderly.

Ukranian Priest martyred by the Soviet regime to be beatified

 

Servant of God Servo Petro Oros 

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Ukrainian priest martyred under the Soviet regime, to be beatified

The Pope recognises the murder in hatred of the faith of a priest from the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Ukraine, who was killed in 1953 in the Soviet Union. There are also Decrees promulgated for the heroic virtues of five new Venerables, including the director of "Radio Aparecida", Vittorio Coelho de Almeida, and the founder of "Sorriso Francescano", Capuchin Umile da Genova

By Salvatore Cernuzio

A few hours after celebrating a clandestine Divine Liturgy, Father Petro Paolo Oros died when a pistol shot entered his chin, crossed his neck and exited his shoulder. On 28 August 1953, the Soviet communists put an end to the life of robust faith and dedication to the weakest of this priest from the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Ukraine. He died in Siltse. The Pope recognised his martyrdom in Friday’s audience with the Cardinal Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Marcello Semeraro. Oros will now be beatified. Together with his martyrdom, the heroic virtues of five servants of God were recognised, who thus become venerable.

Origins and vocation

Oros was born on 14 July 1917 in the Hungarian village of Biri, into a deeply Christian family. His father was a Greek Catholic priest and disappeared when Petro was 2 years old. At 9, he lost his mother. In 1937, he entered the seminary in Uzghorod, Transcarpathia, on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border. On 18 June 1942, he was ordained a celibate priest of the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Ukraine, and began his pastoral service in a number of villages as vice-parish priest, immediately making himself known for his zeal and love for the poor. In 1943, due to the war, he attended a course for military chaplains in Barca, near Košice, the capital of the region of the same name in Slovakia. He returned to his parish, which, in 1944, ended up, like the entire territory of Transcarpathia, under occupation by Soviet troops of the Red Army and united to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, then to the USSR.

The years of persecution

With the forced annexation, the persecution of the Greek Catholic Church began. In 1946, Oros was transferred to Bilky, in the Irshava district, as a parish priest. Even then, he received pressure to transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church. Pressures that intensified in 1948. He resisted, remaining faithful to the Pope. In 1949, pastoral activities were then forbidden and all Greek Catholic churches were closed. The Eparchy Mukachevo was also suppressed.

The assassination

Father Oros lived, with awareness and courage, under the cloud of a person under suspicion, controlled by the secret services and exposed to arbitrary arrests and injustice. When, in 1949, the Greek Catholic Church was outlawed and personalities held in esteem in society systematically eliminated, the servant of God continued to clandestinely carry out his ministry. An arrest warrant against him was issued in 1953. He tried to escape, but on 28 August a policeman stopped him at the railway station in the village of Siltse and killed him. Immediately the murder was considered a martyrdom, although the priest's body remained hidden until the break-up of the Soviet Union. His memory remained impressed on the faithful and endures to this day, together with the fama signorum, the conviction of the efficacy of his intercession with God.

"The Lamp of the Most Holy"

In addition to the martyrdom of Petro Oros, the Pope authorised the promulgation of Decrees recognising the heroic virtues of five new Venerables. One of these is Jesús Antonio Gómez Gómez, a Colombian priest who was a confessor, rector of colleges and professor of dogmatic theology. He was particularly dedicated to the confessions and spiritual direction of priests, seminarians, religious, nuns and also lay people. People called him 'the lamp of the Blessed Sacrament' for the many hours he spent in Adoration, even when ill.

The founder of "Franciscan Smile

The Decrees also include one concerning the Capuchin, Umile da Genova, born Giovanni Giuseppe Bonzi, founder in the immediate post-war period of Sorriso Francescano, a place of assistance for poor, orphaned and abandoned children. For them, the priest went begging daily for the necessary money. And thanks to what he collected, he was also able to found the Congregation of the Little Handmaids of the Child Jesus Sisters. Although the suffering and trauma experienced during the bombing of Genoa left him with emotional discomfort that did not always facilitate interpersonal relationships, he continued to be loved and esteemed by his co-workers. The archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, supported him and always had confidence in him.

The Spanish priest who helped priests

The Pope then acknowledged the heroic virtues of Giovanni Sánchez Hernández, a Spanish priest of the Sodality of the Diocesan Worker Priests of the Heart of Jesus, founder of the Institute of the Secular Servants of Jesus Christ the Priest, established with the aim of helping priests in their ministry.

Evangelisation by radio

Vittorio Coelho de Almeida, was a Brazilian Redemptorist who provided pastoral service at the Marian shrine of Aparecida, where he had been transferred while convalescing from tuberculosis. The period of his illness was an opportunity for him to become familiar with the medium of radio. In fact, he joined the team of Radio Aparecida from the start of broadcasting in 1951, becoming deputy director in 1958 and general manager in '65. Appreciated for his simplicity in communicating, he soon became famous and many people turned to him for advice and help. In 1969, Radio Aparecida's broadcasts were suspended by order of the military regime, which deemed his 1 January speech commenting on the 'Declaration of Human Rights' subversive. 

The Indian mystic nun

The list of new Venerables also includes the Indian Ursuline nun Maria Celina Kannanaikal, who was persecuted within her congregation during the novitiate because of mystical experiences that created doubts in the superiors and upset the novices. Her holiness was recognised, but many suggested that she not be admited her to profession. After a six-month extension of the novitiate - beyond the canonical two years - she was admitted to her first religious profession. She taught in primary schools, but soon became seriously ill with frequent febrile episodes, headaches and vomiting with traces of blood. No one was able to make a definite diagnosis. She died in 1957 at the age of 26, just thirty-five days after her religious profession.