Father Streich, gunned down in 1938 by a communist during the Eucharist, was recognized as a martyr killed “in odium fidei” - “in hatred of the faith.”
In his homily, Cardinal Semeraro stressed that martyrdom is linked to the very essence of Christianity. Having quoted the words of Christ: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit", he said that the Blessed Stanisław Streich continues to speak to us, no longer from the pulpit of the church, where he was brutally murdered, but from the pulpit of his sacrified life”.
In a statement issued on May 13, Pope Leo XIV described Father Streich as a ”fearless shepherd and a faithful witness of the Gospel to the point of the shedding of blood”.
Born in 1902, Father Streich was ordained in 1925. After several years of pastoral service in Poznań and studies in classical philology, he became a parish priest in the nearby village of Luboń, where he initiated the construction of a church.
According to Father Wojciech Mueller, the postulator of beatification cause, Father Streich “had an amazing ability to bring people together, working with factory workers, the poor, the unemployed; he was building not only a church, but a community”.
On Feb. 27, 1938, during a Sunday morning Mass for children, Father Streich was murdered by a radical communist. According to witnesses, after firing several shots in the face and back, the killer shouted: "Long live communism!". Father Streich’s funeral drew some 20,000 mourners, reflecting the profound impact he had on his community.
Father Maciej Szczepaniak, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Poznań, said that the Nazi invasion of Poland, followed by communist repression, stifled any open commemoration of Father Streich’s death. "Only after the collapse of communism, people began to speak. Families brought out hidden photos, letters, and oral accounts. The parish in Luboń became the grassroots centre of remembrance, leading to the beatification process, which formally began with the diocesan phase in 2017. In the course of two years, more than 3,500 pages of documentation had been collected and 31 witnesses had been officially interviewed”.
A Vatican ruling of May 2024 confirmed that Father Streich was a martyr, clearing the way for his beatification.
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Source: PAP, OSV News