The pontiff authorized decrees recognizing the martyrdom, “out of hatred of the faith,” of the nine Salesian priests who died between 1941 and 1942 in the Auschwitz and Dachau camps, the Vatican News reported.
The group—Jan Świerc, Ignacy Antonowicz, Ignacy Dobiasz, Karol Golda, Franciszek Harazim, Ludwik Mroczek, Włodzimierz Szembek, Kazimierz Wojciechowski and Franciszek Miśka—were Catholic educators and pastors arrested following Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939.
Uninvolved in politics, they were detained solely for being priests, according to the Vatican News.
In the camps, they offered spiritual support to fellow prisoners and continued to express their faith despite brutal conditions and torture.
Some were executed, while others died as a result of the inhuman conditions of their imprisonment.
Aware that their pastoral work was seen by the Nazis as resistance, they remained faithful to their vocation and accepted the risk of death, the Vatican said.
In the Catholic Church, beatification is one stage short of being recognised as a saint.
(gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, vaticannews.va