WARSAW, Poland — A cardinal incarcerated for 18 years after
refusing to abandon his church and a bishop thrown in an unmarked grave after
starving to death in an "extermination prison" are among seven
communist-era martyrs who will be beatified by Pope Francis during his upcoming
visit to Romania.
"This will be a recognition that Christ was present during
all the suffering, and a sign of joy in our church's resurrection," said
Bishop Mihai Fratila of the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Bucharest.
"It will also be a reminder that Christians should uphold
Christ's eternal truth and resist compromises. We cannot engage in dialogue
with the forces of darkness and evil," he added.
Preparations are underway for the June 2 beatification of
Cardinal Iuliu Hossu and six other Romanian Catholic bishops, who died as
martyrs after their church's forced suppression.
Bishop Fratila said that a 2,000-page dossier on the prelates had
been completed after the 2013 opening of Romanian Communist Party archives. The
decision to honor the martyrs, approved by Pope Francis March 19, went
"far beyond cultural and historical questions or motives of revenge,"
he said.
"We knew the facts of the persecution, but needed
documentation to clarify the communist regime's logic and motives," Bishop
Fratila said.
"In all the countries of Eastern Europe, we've seen it isn't
enough to make the sign of the cross and show piety on paper. Being Christian
means making choices in our daily lives, as these martyr stories clearly
show," he added.
The beatification Mass will be celebrated in Blaj on the final
day of the pope's three-day pilgrimage. The Divine Liturgy and beatification
ceremony are expected to attract tens of thousands from the Romanian and Latin
Catholic churches, both of which were repressed under communist rule from 1948
through 1989.
The seven prelates were among at least 600 Catholic clergy
arrested and told to find other jobs in October 1948, when their Eastern
Catholic Church was declared reunified with Orthodoxy at a widely boycotted
synod in Cluj.
Many priests went into hiding or were killed by security forces
during a subsequent campaign to eradicate the Romanian Catholic Church.
Auxiliary Bishop Vasile Aftenie of Fagaras and Alba Iulia died in
1950 at the age of 50 after 10 months of brutal interrogation. Witnesses said
his bishop's feet stuck out of his makeshift coffin when he was buried in the
capital's Bellu cemetery.
Bishop Valeriu Frentiu of Oradea Mare became bishop of Lugoj in
1913 and later was transferred to Oradea, where he opened a seminary and
several schools and developed monastic life. After his arrest by security
forces, he died in an "extermination prison" at Sighet at age 77
after being denied medical care.
Bishop Ioan Suciu became auxiliary bishop of Oradea in 1940. He
died from mistreatment and starvation at Sighet in 1953 at the age of 45.
Auxiliary Bishop Tit Liviu Chinezu of Fagaras and Alba Iulia
froze to death at Sighet at age 50. He had served as rector of the Theology
Academy in Blaj and was secretly consecrated a bishop while incarcerated in
1949 with authorization from the papal nuncio.
Among the other martyrs, Bishop Ioan Balan of Lugoj, a New
Testament translator, was arrested for refusing to submit to Orthodoxy and died
from mistreatment while under house arrest at an Orthodox monastery after four
years in the Sighet prison.
Bishop Alexandru Rusu of Maramures, a former theology professor
and newspaper editor, also was held in Orthodox monasteries after surviving
Sighet, but he received a life sentence in 1956, at the age of 73, for
"instigating high treason" after holding a Romanian Catholic liturgy
in Cluj's university church. He died in 1963.
He was buried in an unmarked grave, after dying of septicemia in
an underground cell at Gherla Prison.
Cardinal Hossu, a former military officer who had defended
Romania's Jewish minority during World War II, also was secretly consecrated by
the papal nuncio. He survived four years at Sighet and was made a cardinal
secretly by Pope Paul VI in 1969 during 14 years' detention at Caldarusani. He
died a year later in a Bucharest hospital.
In his Easter homily, Cardinal Lucian Muresan of Fagaras and Alba
Iulia said the bishops had recognized their church would survive the
"calculations, schemes and strategies" used against it and had
"assured its continuity" by "choosing the hard way of
martyrdom."
He said their testimony should "strengthen new generations
in troubled times," and "highlight the importance of martyrdom and
sacrifice in a fluid and permissive society."