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Catholic World News News Feature

Pope praises newly beatified Nazi opponent October 10, 2005

Pope Benedict XVI paid homage on Sunday, October 9, to a newly beatified German prelate whose opposition to the Nazi regime "brought the light of truth to shine in times of darkness."

After the beatification ceremonies for Cardinal Clemens August Graf von Galen (1878-1946), at which Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided, the Holy Father joined the faithful in St. Peter's Basilica to venerate the relics, give his blessing, and deliver a short address.

The Pope asked the pilgrims in the basilica to consider how the man known as the "Lion of Münster" recognized the poison of Nazi ideology "at a time when intelligent people seemed blind," and resisted the regime "when even the strong showed themselves to be weak and vile?" He said that Blessed von Galen "feared God more than he feared Man, and God gave him the courage to do and to say what others dared not say and do."

Pope Benedict continued his praise for Blessed von Galen later, during his Angelus audience, reminding the crowd in St. Peter's Square that the German cardinal "denounced the neo-pagan ideology of National Socialism." The newly beatified prelate offers a lesson to today's Catholics, he said, insofar as he stands for the belief that "faith cannot be reduced to a private emotion, which can perhaps even be hidden when it becomes inconvenient."

Thousands of German pilgrims were on hand for the beatification, and their applause filled the Vatican basilica when-- after the reading of the apostolic letter in which Pope Benedict formally declared Cardinal von Galen blessed-- a large portrait of the cardinal was unfurled. The date chosen for the beatification ceremonies had coincided with the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the Münster diocese, the oldest in Germany.

Cardinal von Galen was the leading voice of opposition to the Nazi regime within the German Catholic hierarchy of that era. He repeatedly denounced the brutal Nazi racial and eugenic policies, particularly in three famous sermons delivered in 1941, which earned him the enmity of Hitler's regime. Raised to the College of Cardinals at the war's end, he died shortly after receiving the red hat.