Not Nuts -- Nuns!

Meet the cloistered Dominican Nuns of St. Dominic's Monastery, Linden, Virginia, not far from Front Royal.  These nuns get up at oh-three-hundred -- yes, you read it right: 3:00 a.m. -- and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this was them processing into the chapel for Matins at oh-three-thirty.  It takes a real prayer warrior to get up at an hour when the rest of the world is sleeping, partying, or out getting a DUI after all the bars have closed.

And clearly, these nuns have not lost sight of what the religious life is all about.   There does not appear to be any of the nut-stuff at St. Dominic's that has infested other congregations, to their great cost.  Not only have these Dominicans not kicked the habit; they lead a disciplined life of prayer and work, in that order, keeping a daily schedule that most of us in the world could not keep for three days together if our lives depended on it.  Yet which of these women would care to trade in that schedule for anything the world has to offer?  This community may not be numerous, but it is obviously fairly young, and not without postulants and aspirants.  I doubt these nuns are among those kicking up a fuss about the apostolic visitation of women religious communities in the United States.

Although this particular community of Dominican nuns traces its roots back over 100 years, they  have only lived at the present monastery of St. Dominic's since 2008.  And the monastery is still unfinished: among other things, they still need to build an enclosure fence, and to establish a cemetery.  They are also working on a permanent chapel, a permanent library, and guest rooms for visitors.

So if you've got some filthy lucre, and you'd like to help support these roaring lionesses of two-fisted cool...here's where to send donations.  Hint, hint. 

Marked and Sealed and Signed

Dietrich von Hildebrand, the great 20th-century Catholic philosopher, lamented, as far back as the 1920s, the loss among Catholics of the sense of the supernatural.  He became aware of this loss when, as a professor in Catholic Bavaria, he was criticized for giving precedence to his priest students, because the students were not Ph.D.s.  Today, many priests themselves seem either unaware or ashamed of their incomprehensible dignity, as though they had gone through all those years of seminary training and received the indelible imprint of the priesthood on their souls all so that they could go back to being just like everybody else.

Introducing a bracing tonic in the shape of an opposing point of view from one who dedicated his life to reparation, especially for other priests.

“BUT, mother, is Jesus really there behind that little golden door? Does He never go away? Does He ever get tired? Is He never hungry, or sleepy, and how did He get in there?”

Two big eyes, full of eager questioning, looked up into mother‟s face, as if fearful that the story of Jesus, dwelling in the Tabernacle, might not be really true.

“Mother, how did He get in there?”

The lady smiled with pleasure as she saw how deeply her words had sunk into the heart of her little son, five years of age; and lifting him up in her arms, as she sat before the altar in her castle chapel, she explained to him the mysteries of the Holy Sacrifice and the wonders Of the Real Presence.

The child listened eagerly while she told him of those whom God had chosen to be His priests, and of the power given to them alone of bringing the great God down from Heaven to live with us on earth. She told him what a priest could do; how he could wash away every sin and raise the dead soul to life; bring back peace and happiness to the broken-hearted; change the bread and wine at Mass into the living Body of Christ, and bear Him in his hands to be the food of others.

“The holy priest does all that, René, and it is he who puts dear Jesus in the Tabernacle, that you may go to Him and ask Him all you want. He is always glad to see you come to visit Him, He will never grow tired of your company, and, perhaps, if you asked Him, René, He might some day make you also one of His priests, and let you hold Him in your consecrated hands.”

With a throbbing heart the mother stood rooted to the spot, as she watched her little René bring a chair and climb upon the altar.

“He must be asleep,” he murmured, “I‟ll wake Him up.”

Tap, tap, tap, upon the Tabernacle door. The child paused, bending forward to hear an answer.

Tap, tap— “O Jesus,” he cried, with a sob of disappointment in his voice, “I am so sorry You are asleep, for I wanted to ask You to make me a holy priest. I want so much to be a priest that I might hold You in my arms and kiss Your little face as often as I like. Good night, now, dear Jesus; but when You are awake tomorrow I‟ll come back to you again, for I do want, Oh! so much, to be one day a holy priest.”

From Shall I Be a Priest? by Rev. William J. Doyle, S.J.

Read the entire pamphlet here.

Lest you be tempted to dismiss this as sentimental tripe, here is another extract from Fr. Doyle, written during the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in human history, on October 11, 1916. 

By cutting a piece out of the side of the trench, I was just able to stand in front of my tiny altar, a biscuit tin supported by two German bayonets. God's angels, no doubt, were hovering overhead, but so were the shells, hundreds of them, and I was a little afraid that when the earth shook with the crash of the guns, the chalice might be overturned. Round about me on every side was the biggest congregation I ever had: behind the altar, on either side, and in front, row after row, sometimes crowding one upon the other, but all quiet and silent, as if they were straining their ears to catch every syllable of that tremendous act of Sacrifice - but every man was dead! Some had lain there for a week and were foul and horrible to look at, with faces black and green. Others had only just fallen, and seemed rather sleeping than dead, but there they lay, for none had time to bury them, brave fellows, every one, friend and foe alike, while I held in my unworthy hands the God of Battles, their Creator and their Judge, and prayed to Him to give rest to their souls. Surely that Mass for the Dead, in the midst of, and surrounded by the dead, was an experience not easily to be forgotten.

Fr. William Doyle, chaplain to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 16th Irish Division in World War I,  was killed by a shell while ministering to the dying at the Battle of Ypres on August 16, 1917.

The Crucifix versus the Swastika

Now that the veneration of Pope Pius XII has ignited another firestorm of Catholic bashing on the part of those who persist in believing -- in the face of the Everest of evidence to the contrary -- that the Church in general, and Ven. Pius XII in particular, did nothing to oppose Hitler, it seems the time is ripe for re-posting my honor roll of Catholic heroes from last spring -- with some additions (it is still a very short list).

St. Maximilian Kolbe

Franciscan priest, a prisoner at Auschwitz. In July of 1941, a prisoner from his barracks escaped; as a punishment, the guards chose ten men out of the barracks to be starved to death. One of them, Franciszek Gajowniczek, lamented for his wife and family; St. Maximilian approached the guards and offered his own life in place of Gajowniczek's. The offer was accepted. After three weeks of starvation and dehydration, St. Maximilian was dispatched by an injection of carbolic acid. The man he saved was later reunited with his wife (although his sons perished in the war), and lived to see the canonization of the priest who had given his life for him.

The Martyrs of Nowogrodek

When the Nazis arrested 120 citizens of Nowogrodek, Poland on July 18, 1943, the town's community of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth unanimously offered in prayer to take their places. In the name of their community, Sister Mary Stella, their superior, begged God that if the sacrifice of lives was needed, to take their lives in place of the imprisoned, who included their chaplain. On July 31, 1943, all but one of the sisters was arrested; the following day, they were taken out to the woods and shot, and buried in a common grave. Meanwhile, most of the other prisoners, including their chaplain, were spared.

St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

From afar, Edith Stein, who had been born and raised Jewish, discerned the fate that awaited her people at the hands of the Nazis. In 1933, she wrote: "I had heard of severe measures against Jews before. But now it dawned on me that God had laid his hand heavily on His people, and that the destiny of these people would also be mine." Six years later, in her last will and testament, the child who had been born on the Day of Atonement would offer herself up for the sake of atonement: "Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being His most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death...so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world." Although her order smuggled her to the Netherlands for her safety, she desired to share the fate of her Jewish brethren. This desire was granted on August 9, 1942, when St. Theresa Benedicta and her sister Rose, also a convert to the Faith, were murdered in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Bl. Hilary Pawel Januszewski

Carmelite friar. When the Gestapo came to arrest some friars out of the Carmel in Cracow in December of 1940, Fr. Hilary volunteered to go in place of a sick, elderly friar. He gave himself to the care of dying prisoners at Dachau, and died of typhus in 1945 -- just days before the camp was liberated.

Bl. Julia Rodzinska

A Dominican nun, Sr. Julia was interned in the Stuthoff concentration camp, where she gave herself to serving the Jewish women prisoners. She died of typhoid at the camp in 1945.

Bl. Natalia Tulasiewicz

Bl. Natalia Tulasiewicz was a teacher from Poznan, Poland. She volunteered to be deported with other women sent to do heavy slave labor in Germany in order to give them spiritual comfort. On finding out what she was up to, the Gestapo arrested and tortured her, and sent her to Ravensbruck concentration camp. On March 31, 1945 -- Good Friday -- Bl. Natalia used the little strength she had left to mount a stool and give the other prisoners a talk about the Passion and death of Jesus. Two days later, she was put to death in the gas chamber.

Stanislawa Leszczynska

Polish midwife, arrested by the Germans in 1943 and sent to work in Hell on earth, the "sick ward" at Auschwitz. She delivered more than 3,000 babies at Auschwitz, and made sure every one was baptized. Miraculously, despite the unspeakable conditions, she never lost a single mother or child in childbirth, though few of the babies survived the war. Despite threats on her life, she flatly refused to drown newborns, even facing down the notorious Dr. Mengele. She died in 1974, and is still venerated in Poland. Evidence is being gathered for her cause for sainthood.

Bl. Franz Jägerstätter

Austrian farmer, husband and father of four. Jägerstätter was outspokenly anti-Nazi, and was the only one in his village to vote against the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Germany). After being drafted in the German army and serving for a brief period, he refused to serve any further, and was arrested.  Though tormented by the fear that he was acting out of pride, and therefore condemning himself to damnation, he held firm.  He spent time in prison before finally being beheaded, saying that it was better for his children to live without a father than for them to keep their father as a Nazi collaborator.  Here are some excellent articles on the trials of this courageous martyr for the faith.

Bl. Maria Restituta Kafka

A Franciscan Sister of Charity, Bl. Maria Restituta was born in Brno in what is now the Czech Republic. A trained nurse, she went to work at the hospital in Mödling, south of Vienna after World War I, eventually becoming the head surgical nurse. Her refusal to take down crucifixes that she had hung in the hospital, plus her writings critical to the regime, led to her arrest by the Gestapo on Ash Wednesday, 1942. She was eventually sentenced to death, and was beheaded on March 30, 1943. Here is the link to Pope John Paul II's homily on the occasion of her beatification.

Mother Ricarda Beauchamp Hambrough and Bl. Mary Elizabeth Hasselblad

When Pope Pius XII ordered the convents and cloisters of Rome to open their doors to Jewish refugees in 1943, Bl. Mary Elizabeth Hasselblad, Bridgettine abbess, and her assistant, Sr.  (later Mother) Ricarda Beauchamp Hambrough, an Englishwoman, sprang into action.  Thanks to their efforts, Casa di San Brigida, became a refuge for more than 60 Jews during the war.  Bl. Mary Elizabeth died in 1957, whereupon Mother Ricarda, who died in 1966, succeeded her as abbess.  Pope John Paul II beatified Bl. Mary Elizabeth in 1999; early last year, the Bridgettines petitioned Rome for permission to open a cause for the sainthood of Mother Ricarda, who played a leading role in this life-saving work.

Irena Sendler

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Irena Sendler used her position as an employee of Poland's Social Welfare Department to smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, to which her duties gave her access.  While apparently conducting health inspections, Sendler hid children in boxes, suitcases, packages, trams, ambulances, and whatever else would answer the purpose, and got them out to various refuges and hiding places.  In order to make it possible for the children to be reunited with their families after the war, she buried jars full of lists of their names.  In 1943, the Gestapo caught Sendler, put her to torture and sentenced her to death; bribed by her friends, the guards whose task was to take her to her execution abandoned her in a wood instead, unconscious and with broken arms and legs.  Officially dead, Sendler passed the war in hiding but continued her work.  After the war, she dug up the jars she had buried and tried to reunite the approximately 2,500 children she had saved with their families; however, most of the latter had perished in the death camp at Treblinka.  Sendler died in 2008 at the age of 98.

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Born in 1889 in Florence to a renowned German sculptor, Dietrich von Hildebrand was raised in a milieu in which natural gifts and virtues flourished in an absence of religion.  Gifted himself with a brilliant intellect, the young von Hildebrand decided to become a philosopher, and studied first at the University of Munich, and then the University of Göttingen.  In 1914, he and his wife accepted Baptism and entered the Catholic Church.  Von Hildebrand was an early and vocal denouncer of the budding Nazi party, and quickly earned a place of honor on their blacklist.  When Hitler tried to take over Bavaria in November of 1923 (the infamous "Beer Hall Putsch"), von Hildebrand was compelled to flee, but returned after the putsch failed.  When the Nazis came to power in 1933, von Hildebrand was compelled to abandon his property and his professorship at the University of Munich and return, penniless, to Florence, the city of his birth.  Appalled and grieved at the confusion of those -- especially Catholics, and even Catholic clergy -- who failed to recognize the evil of the Nazi ideology, von Hildebrand determined to continue to wage war against it; later in 1933, he moved to Vienna and, with the backing of Chancellor Dollfuss, founded a magazine devoted entirely to attacking and exposing the intellectual underpinnings of Nazism and its first cousin, Communism.  Von Hildebrand -- whom the Nazis had sentenced to death in absentia -- again became a refugee after the Anschluss and, after many adventures in Switzerland and France, made it to America in 1940.   The author of a large body of theological and philosophical works (Pope Pius XII called him a "20th-century doctor of the Church"), von Hildebrand died in New Rochelle, New York in 1977.

Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of Austria

Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss called himself the youngest (43) and the shortest Chancellor in all of Europe.  A devout Catholic, he was also the only European head of state to actively and openly oppose Hitlerism in the 1930s.  In 1933, he met Dietrich von Hildebrand and agreed to provide financial backing for Hildebrand's anti-Nazi, anti-Communist magazine.  Determined to preserve the independence of Austria, Dollfuss took stern measures in the face of  Nazi and Communist attempts to take power.  On July 25, 1934, as part of an attempted coup, Nazi assassins dressed as Austrian guards invaded the Chancery and shot Dollfuss.  Dollfuss lay dying for seven hours, during which time the Nazis refused to bring him either a doctor or a priest; he breathed his last praying for his murderers.

Bl. Clemens August Graf von Galen

Bl. Clemens, a Count and a scion of one of Germany's oldest noble families, became bishop of Münster in 1933, the same year that Hitler came to power in Germany.  He immediately became a thorn in Hitler's side with his vocal and unrelenting campaigns against Nazi racial ideology, concentration camps, forced sterilization, euthanasia, deportation of the Jews and the persecution of the Catholic Church.  Copies of his sermons circulated throughout war-torn Europe.  As much as the Nazis would have liked to be rid of this turbulent bishop, they did not dare to kill him.  After the war, Bl. Clemens earned the wrath of the British by speaking out injustices perpetrated on the populace by occupying forces.  In 1946, Ven. Pius XII created him a cardinal; he died a few days after his return from the Vatican of appendicitis.  He was beatified in 2005, on the anniversary of Ven. Pius' death.

Msgr. Angelo Roncalli (Bl. John XXIII)

Working from Istanbul with Chaim Barlas of the Jewish Agency Rescue Committee, Msgr. Roncalli arranged for false papers, transit passes, false baptismal certificates and other documents that made it possible for thousands of Jews to escape the slaughter in Europe.

And last (though only on this list) but certainly not least...

Eugenio Pacelli (Ven. Pius XII)

Just a few of the things Pope Pius XII -- whom the Nazis mocked as a "Jew-lover," and whom Hitler plotted to kidnap -- did to save the Jews before and during World War II include:

-- As Cardinal Pacelli, helped to author Mit Brennender Sorge (With Burning Sorrow), Pope Pius XI's anti-Nazi encyclical

-- As Pope, calmly confronted Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop with a list of Nazi atrocities in Poland during a personal audience, to Ribbentrop's deep mortification

-- Ordered the opening of monastaries, convents and even cloisters to Jewish refugees

-- Sheltered thousands of Jews at Castel Gandolfo

-- Sheltered as many refugees in the Vatican as could make their way there, and kept the railway lines into the Vatican running so as to be able to supply for all their needs

-- Came up with 100 pounds of gold to ransom the Jews of Rome, whom the Nazis threatened with deportation during the occupation, never revealing what he had to melt down to get it

-- Personally intervened to halt the deportation of Jews out of Hungary, Romania and Slovakia

-- Contributed unstintingly to relief efforts, even personally assisting those affected by the devastation of air strikes in Rome

-- Stuck to his post in Rome, despite the dangers to himself personally; his mere presence was a hindrance to Nazi atrocities in Rome

It is worth noting that when, after the war, Israel Anton Zoller, Chief Rabbi of Rome from 1939 to 1945, converted to Catholicism, he took the baptismal name Eugenio Zolli in honor of Pope Pius XII.

No, it is not the Catholic Church that owes an apology for the Holocaust. If any apologies are owed, they are owed by people whose blind hatred of the Church makes them equally blind to the facts, and enemies of the truth.

December 26th: Feast of St. Stephen the Martyr

Impetum Fecerunt Unanimes, by John Sheppard (1515-1559), who was 24 when St. Thomas More was put to death.

H/T Gillibrand at Catholic Church Conservation.

VENERABLE Pius XII!

From the It's About Flippin' Time files:

December 19, 2009: Pope Pius XII is declared Venerable.

Now it's time to get busy and start praying for a miracle for his beatification!

THANK YOU, GOD!

A Great President on a Great Anniversary

For Veteran's Day: President Reagan's speech at Point du Hoc, June 6, 1984 -- the 40th anniversary of D-Day.

Two of the Greatest Minutes in the History of Oratory

For Veteran's Day: the Gettysburg Address. The address was so short that there was no time to photograph President Lincoln in the act of delivering it.

The keynote speaker at the ceremony dedicating the cemetery at Gettysburg was Edward Everett of Massachusetts, a man of many accomplishments who was acclaimed as the greatest orator of his day. He delivered a two-hour oration. President Lincoln followed with a short speech that he had composed after arriving at Gettysburg. "I should be glad," said Edward Everett to the President, "if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

Incidentally, we are eight days away from the 146th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal."

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Heroine of Fort Hood

On Thursday, November 5th, members of the 36th Engineer Brigade milled around the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. They were about to be deployed overseas, and were waiting to undergo medical exams. They were unarmed.

A little after 1:20 p.m., a man wearing combat fatigues and carrying two handguns entered the processing center. He was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, an Army psychiatrist who was himself about to be deployed to the Middle East. According to witnesses, Hasan, a Muslim, shouted "Allahu akbar!," opened fire into the crowd of unarmed soldiers, and went around with his gun pointed downward, methodically shooting those who had fallen or dove for cover. The shootings took place in two adjacent facilities on the base, and at one point, the shooter chased a wounded soldier across an open courtyard in an apparent attempt to finish the soldier off.

Enter Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, wife, mother and civilian police officer. The slightly built sergeant and her partner happened to be in the area and responded to the scene within about three minutes. Sgt. Munley promptly approached and engaged the shooter. A gun battle ensued. Although she took two shots through her legs, Sgt. Munley persisted and brought the shooter down. Said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the commander of Fort Hood: "It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer." Although she was initially reported to have been killed, Sgt. Munley is alive and presently in stable condition.

There were many acts of selfless devotion at Fort Hood on that dreadful Thursday, when soldiers, some of them heedless of their own wounds, leaped to the aid of their fallen comrades, administering first aid and using their own clothes as bandages and torniquets. Even the shooter was promptly attended to -- a courtesy that would probably not have been extended to a non-Muslim American soldier similarly situated in the Arab World.

Pray for Sgt. Munley and her family, and for all the wounded and dead and their families.

Shepherds in Combat Boots

My good friend Cavey has gotten me to thinking about heroic priests in uniform. Readers will remember the four priests who have won the Congressional Medal of Honor, including Servant of God Vincent Capodanno; but there are many more. The Year for Priests seems like a good time to remember them. Here are just a few. Click the pictures for more information on each one.

Servant of God Emil Kapuan (Captain, U.S. Army, 1916-1951)

What Fr. Emil Kapuan's service in the Korean War lacked in length was made up for in heroism. From July to November, 1950, Fr. Kapuan served bravely on the front lines, offering Mass on the hoods of jeeps, anointing the wounded, burying the dead, and writing letters to the families of dead soldiers to give them the consolation of knowing that their loved ones had died with the Sacraments. On August 2, 1950, Fr. Kapuan was awarded the Bronze Star for rescuing a wounded soldier under intense fire.

But Fr. Kapuan rendered his greatest service in prison. On November 2, 1950, he was captured while ministering to wounded soldiers. Separated from the enlisted prisoners, he would sneak out of his own compound to tend to them, both physically and spiritually. He led the men in prayers, of which one of his favorites was the Rosary. Drawing on his great resourcefulness, he made vessels out of sheet metal for storing clean water and laundering the uniforms of sick and incontinent prisoners. He went out and scrounged for sticks for firewood and food for the starving, always invoking the aid of St. Dismas, the Good Thief, before embarking on these expeditions.

Forced by the Communists to attend daily indoctrination sessions, Fr. Kapuan perked up the spirits of the other prisoners by answering the Communists back. Survivors recalled that he informed the Communists that "God is as real as the air they breathed but could not see, as the sounds they heard but could not see, as the thoughts and ideas they had and spoke but could not see or feel," and that one day God would deliver China from the disasters to which Communism had led her. There were limits to how much the Communists could retaliate, however, because Fr. Kapuan was so loved by the other prisoners that silencing him might have touched off a rebellion.

It is quite likely that Fr. Emil Kapuan was a martyr for the Faith. When, shortly after Easter, 1951, he became incapacitated due to an infected eye and a blood clot in his leg, the Communists seized on the opportunity to isolate the priest who had been such a thorn in their flesh. In May, 1951, over the objections of his fellow prisoners, his captors put Fr. Kapuan into their "hospital" and starved him to death. On August 18, 1951, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. His cause for sainthood was opened in 2008.

Fr. Aloysius Schmitt (Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, 1909-1941)

The young Fr. Aloysius Schmitt was serving his first tour of sea duty on board the U.S.S. Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It was three days after his 32nd birthday. He had just finished morning Mass on board ship when the Japanese attack began. Fr. Schmitt went to sick bay to minister to the wounded and dying. CatholicMil.org gives the following moving account of what happened next:

When the Oklahoma was struck and water poured into her hold, the ship began to list and roll over. Many men were trapped. Schmitt found his way -- with other crew members -- to a compartment where only a small porthole provided enough space to escape.

Chaplain Schmitt helped other men, one by one, to crawl to safety. When it became his turn, the chaplain tried to get through the small opening. As he struggled to exit through the porthole, he became aware that others had come into the compartment from which he was trying to escape. As he realized that the water was rising rapidly and that escape would soon be impossible, he insisted on being pushed back through the hole so that he could help others who could get through the opening more easily. Accounts from eyewitnesses that have been published in the Arizona Memorial newsletter relate that the men protested, saying that he would never get out alive, but he insisted, "Please let go of me, and may God bless you all."

Fr. William Doyle, S.J., (Royal Dublin Fusliers, 16th Irish Division, 1873-1917)

Like many great hearts, the heart of William Doyle beat in a frail body. The illnesses he suffered as a boy went on to endanger his vocation as a Jesuit priest. But all through his life, he dreamed of being a soldier, both for Ireland and for Christ. Shortly before he took his vows of religion in 1893, he made the following document, written partly in his own blood:

A.M.D.G. ac B.V.M.
My Martyrdom for Mary's Sake.

Darling Mother Mary, in preparation for the glorious martyrdom which I feel assured thou art going to obtain for me, I, thy most unworthy child, on this the first day of thy month, solemnly commence my life of slow martyrdom by earnest hard work and constant self-denial. With my blood I promise thee to keep this resolution, do thou, sweet Mother, assist me and obtain for me the one favour I wish and long for: To die a Jesuit Martyr.

May 1st, 1893.

May God's will, not mine, be done! Amen.

Fr. Doyle had been a priest for seven years when, in 1914, he volunteered to serve as a military chaplain. His first experience of combat came at Loos on April 26, 1916, when the Germans launched a series of poison gas attacks. The priest who had been so frail as a youth now achieved an almost superhuman level of exertion. For days he worked the trenches, ministering to the wounded and dying, in utter disregard for his own safety and for the effects of the gas on himself, which were serious. This selfless devotion and supernatural courage in the face of deadly peril marked the whole course of his service in the trenches, from beginning to end, and won him the love of his troops. Although he personally disdained ribbons and medals (except to the extent they pleased his father back home), many thought he deserved the Victoria Cross. Only religious and ethnic prejudice prevented its being awarded to him.

Fr. Doyle embraced his life at the front, with its horrors, its perils, its drudgery, and the never-ending slaughter as the greatest grace he had ever been given. "I wonder is there a happier man in France than I am," he wrote. "Just now Jesus is giving me great joy in tribulation, though conditions of living are about as uncomfortable as even St. Teresa could wish perpetual rain, oceans of mud, damp, cold and a plague of rats. Yet I feel that all this is a preparation for the future and that God is labouring in my soul for ends I do not clearly see as yet. Sometimes I kneel down with outstretched arms and pray God, if it is a part of His divine plan, to rain down fresh privations and sufferings. But" -- he must have laughed as he wrote -- " I stopped when the mud wall of my little hut fell in upon me that was too much of a good joke!"

Throughout his service on the front, Fr. Doyle had many close calls, but always came through unscathed. Finally, on August 17, 1917, toward the evening of a long and busy day, word came of a wounded officer lying in an exposed position. Fr. Doyle went out at once and found the officer in a shell crater. He gave the man his last Sacraments, then half-dragged and half-carried him back into the line. As his runner was handing him a cup of water, a shell exploded nearby, instantly killing Fr. Doyle and three officers. His desire to be a Jesuit martyr was fulfilled.

Fr. Emmeran Bliemel, O.S.B. (10th Tennessee Infantry and 4th Kentucky Infantry, Confederate States of America, 1831-1864)

Fr. Bliemel, who was born on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel in 1831 and died at the same age at which Christ died on the cross, has the distinction of being the first American chaplain to die on a battlefield. He was posthumously awarded the Southern Cross of Honor, also known as the Confederate Medal of Honor. Here is the text of Fr. Bliemel's citation:

Although a non-combatant, Father Bliemel joined his regiment in their assault on the enemy's fortified works. Disregarding his own safety and not content to remain in the rear, Father Bliemel continued forward into the thickest of the fighting and began ministering to the needs of the wounded and dying. Despite the extreme danger, he continued his work and when the attack was repulsed, accompanied the litter bearers to the rear. But while tending to a fallen soldier, he witnessed the wounding of the colonel of his regiment. Unwilling to abandon his commanding officer, he stopped and went back for him. Seeing that the wounds were mortal, Father Bliemel instead knelt in the field and began to administer the last sacrament on the dying man's behalf. There, with his hands uplifted to God in petition for his colonel's soul, Father Bliemel was decapitated by a shell from the enemy's artillery.

Fr. Leo P. Craig, O.P. (Captain, U.S. Army, 1st Cavalry Division, 1918-1951)

When Leo Craig of Everett, Massachusetts, was just five years old, his mother died. His aunt, Sr. Veronica Craig of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Kentucky, obtained a dispensation from her vows in order to be a second mother to her brother's five young children. The remarkable generosity of this daughter of St. Dominic must have been a lifelong inspiration to Leo, who himself entered the Order of Preachers in 1935. In 1942, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Lawrence and became a priest. In 1949, he joined the Army as a chaplain.

On the afternoon of April 5, 1951, near Chunchon, South Korea, Fr. Leo was preparing for Mass when he heard an explosion. A soldier had stepped on a mine. He hurried out to the minefield, heedless of his own safety, to give the dying man his last Sacraments. The photograph above of Fr. Leo performing this brave act of charity was taken thirty seconds before a second mine exploded, killing him and everyone else in the photograph.


In an age when so much is being made of bad priests, it pays to focus on the deeds of priests like these who gave the last full measure of devotion for their flocks on the battlefield. With the graces of the Sacraments, and especially Holy Orders to draw from, their extraordinary courage and devotion are neither accident nor coincidence.

Kicking the Habit

A gem from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen:

Did you ever hear about the very modern sister that went in to see the pastor? And she said:

"Father, you didn't know I had red hair, did you?"

"No," he said.

"I didn't know you had varicose veins, either!"

Quote of the Post-Vatican II Era

"Latin is not reserved for experts! Every bum and prostitute in ancient Rome spoke Latin!"

Fr. Reginald Foster, O.C.D., the Church's premier Latinist

For more on this remarkable Carmelite priest, click here. Pray for his continued recovery from grave illness.

Prayer of St. Jerome, Latin Master and Doctor of the Church

O Lord, show your mercy to me and gladden my heart. I am like the man on the way to Jericho who was overtaken by robbers, wounded and left for dead. O Good Samaritan, come to my aid, I am like the sheep that went astray. O Good Shepherd, seek me out and bring me home in accord with your will. Let me dwell in your house all the days of my life and praise you for ever and ever with those who are there.

Screw "Civility": Obama Is a Lying Bastard

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) speaks truth to power. Now the speak-truth-to-power crowd, true to hypocritical form, has its britches in a twist.

Here are two things we need to do:

1. Re-elect this man.

2. Dump all the Republicans who (a) made him apologize to Obama, and (b) continue to attack him for being "rude."

I'm getting really tired of being told I need to be civil, all while having socialism, runaway spending, tyranny, abortion, euthanasia and the destruction of my country crammed down my throat by the President and his army of czars.

Ring out the Bells!

It was nearly three years ago that some pusillanimous, black-hearted, soulless, mincing local politicians with microscopic sex organs muzzled a Catholic church's bells in Reston, Virginia on the pretext that they violated the county's idiotic noise ordinance. The atheists are pulling that stunt in other localities as well, even while okaying things like Muslim prayer calls over loudspeakers.

I haven't been able to find out any more about the Reston, Virginia affair. However, I am pleased to report that somebody is beating back the atheistic noise ordinance assault. In a spirit of true ecumenism, St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish, First Christian Church, and Christ the King Liturgical Charismatic Church, represented by attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, are suing the city of Phoenix, Arizona for criminalizing the ringing of church bells via an inane noise ordinance banning noises greater than 60 decibels. The complaint (which can be read here) alleges, among other things, that the city noise ordinance that is being used to silence the church bells is unconstitutional on its face; is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad; allows for subjective and/or arbitrary enforcement; is a content-based restriction on free speech; is not a neutral law of general applicability; and serves no compelling government interest.

The plaintiffs in this case were all sought to be silenced by the anti-bell Mafia. Whining from somebody living a block and a half away from St. Mark's led to a meeting between the parish priest, a parish employee and a lawyer for the diocese on one side, and representatives from the city prosecutor and city police. During the course of this meeting, the city prosecutors admitted to the vagueness of the noise ordinance under which the complaint was lodged. First Christian Church has held off repairing and bringing its carillon back into commission for fear of being prosecuted under the same noise ordinance.

And the city of Phoenix has given them good reason to fear. All this follows in the wake of the criminal prosecution of Bishop Rick Painter of Christ the King Church, who was actually brought up on charges for ringing his church bells. After being tried and found guilty of violating the noise ordinance, Bishop Painter was given a suspended ten-day jail sentence and three years' probation for ringing his church bells. By contrast, my average first-time DUI client is only on the probation hook for one year. Even more outrageous: the court took it upon itself to order the bishop not to ring his bells except on Sundays and a court-selected list of religious holidays. Where are the ACLU's First Amendment rampart-watchers on this?

Fortunately, we don't have to wait around for the ACLU to pull its head out of its collective nether region. Says ADF senior legal counsel Erik Stanley: “Churches shouldn’t be punished for exercising their faith publicly. The law is unconstitutionally vague and has been abused to silence a form of worship that has peacefully sounded through the streets of our nation since its founding. No one should be sentenced to jail and probation for doing what churches have traditionally done throughout history, especially when the sound of the church’s bells does not exceed the noise level that the law allows for ice cream trucks.” Amen to that.

Fr. Z heads his commentary on this story up with the following:

The late Msgr. Richard Schuler loved church bells. The lofty bell tower of St. Agnes Church in St. Paul with its four bells, would ring the hours and half hours 24/7, as well as the Angelus at noon and 6 pm, summons bells before masses, a somber toll on 3 pm every Friday, as well as ringing for the Resurrection on Saturday evenings. The great bell, "Richard", would toll at the consecration on Sunday Masses, for funerals and all the bells would peal at the end of funerals and for weddings.

These bells functioned to remind the people of the neighborhood what day it was, when to go to church for Mass, what was going on in church, when to to to pray during the day … the echo of an era when the once heavily Catholic immigrant neighbors could walk to church. A reminder to us today that religion should be woven into all our daily activities. Our Catholic identity is 24/7.

If perhaps someone would call the rectory to complain about the bells… usually someone with a snoot full or simply bilious by nature… Msgr. Schuler would make the observation that, after decades of studying the question, he had come to the conclusion that if someone didn’t like church bells, it was because they had a bad conscience about something.

All you people out there who hate church bells and other reminders of Christianity: instead of trying to drag the rest of society down into your private hell, why don't you start paying attention to the message the God Who hasn't yet given up on you is trying to send you?

August 9th: Three Martyrs of the 20th Century

In the Third Secret of Fatima, the Blessed Mother gave the children of Fatima a preview of the horrors that lay in store for the world, and especially the Church, if people continued to refuse to reform their lives and do penance for sin. We know that Our Lady's message went unheeded, and the result was the bloodiest century in human history. But God raised up saints amid the wrack and ruin, and on August 9th, the Church remembers three of them.

St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) (1891-1942)

Edith Stein was born in Breslau in 1891 during the festival of Yom Kippur. She was raised up in the Jewish faith, which she abandoned at the age of 13. Possessed of a brilliant intellect, she earned her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Göttingen at the age of 25. The witness of her Catholic friends awakened in her an interest in the Catholic faith; after several years of reading and study, she accepted Baptism in 1922.

From afar, Edith Stein discerned the fate that awaited her people at the hands of the Nazis. In 1933, she wrote: "I had heard of severe measures against Jews before. But now it dawned on me that God had laid his hand heavily on His people, and that the destiny of these people would also be mine." Six years later, in her last will and testament, the child who had been born on the Day of Atonement would offer herself up for the sake of atonement: "Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death...so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world."

In 1934, Edith Stein entered the Carmel and took the name Theresa Benedicta of the Cross. Anti-Semitic legislation forced her to give up her teaching career; in 1938, her order smuggled her out to the Netherlands. However, there the Nazis eventually caught up to her and her sister Rose (also a convert). In his homily on the occasion of her canonization, Pope John Paul II recounts how, just before her deportation, the saint dismissed the idea of being rescued: "Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed."

On August 9, 1942, God accepted the oblation that St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross had offered up four years earlier. On that day, she and her sister Rose were murdered in the gas chamber at Auschwitz. She was beatified on May 1, 1987 and canonized on October 11, 1998.

Bl. Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943)

Bl. Franz has appeared in this space before -- once on the occasion of his beatification in 2007 and once in response to shrill demands that the Pope apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church for the Holocaust. But to truly appreciate the heroism of this humble, uneducated Austrian farmer -- inspired in part by the example of St. Thomas More, who struggled under similar circumstances -- it is necessary to understand how utterly alone he was in his decision to die rather than fight for the Nazi regime. Chris Gillibrand has his story in two parts at Catholic Church Conservation. It is a must-read.

Bl. Ceferino Jimenez Malla, OPL (1861-1936)

Bl. Ceferino was born in 1861 in Catalonia, Spain, the son of Gypsies. Although he had very little education, he possessed a sharp intellect and was a very successful businessman, and even served as a city councilman. He married late in life, and adopted a niece as his own daughter. He accepted Baptism as an adult, and was active in his parish as a catechist, choir director and Rosary leader. In 1926, he became a Third Order Dominican. Bl. Ceferino's sanctity was such that people always made sure to be on their best behavior in his presence.

Bl. Ceferino was arrested for hiding priests during the Spanish Civil War, and was offered clemency if he would throw away his rosary and renounce the Catholic faith. He refused to do so. On August 8, 1936, he was murdered by firing squad. He was beatified on May 4, 1997 by Pope John Paul II -- the first Gypsy to be so honored by the Church.

The Fourth of July

This is rather a sad Fourth of July. It is sad because this nation has placed herself into the hands of the enemies of all she has ever stood for. We have fallen away from our faith and our ideals, and have let ourselves in for a terrible chastisement. This has already started; how many of us notice?

We need to start wearing out the rosaries. We also need to remind ourselves of our glorious patrimony, before we throw it all away.

The Federalist Papers
The Declaration of Independence (how many of the grievances against the king apply to the present administration so far?)
The United States Constitution
"The Americans Who Risked Everything": Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr.'s speech on the men who signed the Declaration of Independence

Pray also for our Marines currently engaged in a major offensive in Afghanistan.

Psalm 144

Blessed be the LORD, my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
my Rock and my Fortress,
my Stronghold and my Deliverer,
my Shield and He in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues the peoples under Him.
O LORD, what is man that Thou dost regard him,
or the son of man that Thou dost think of him?
Man is like a breath,
his days are like a passing shadow.
Bow Thy heavens, O LORD, and come down!
Touch the mountains that they smoke!
Flash forth the lightning and scatter them,
send out Thy arrows and rout them!
Stretch forth Thy hand from on high,
rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I will sing a new song to Thee, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to Thee,
Who givest victory to kings,
Who rescuest David Thy servant.
Rescue me from the cruel sword,
and deliver me from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
may our garners be full,
providing all manner of store;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mischance or failure in bearing;
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
Happy the people to whom such blessings fall!
Happy the people whose God is the LORD!

June 6, 1944: The Longest Day

Would you ever guess, at first glance, that war's white-hot fury had ever touched this place? But a close look reveals the scars of the battle that took place here sixty-five years ago, where tens of thousands of British and American soldiers and their allies poured out their blood in the largest amphibious assault in all of history -- the assault that breached Fortress Europe and led to the downfall of Hitler and his murderous regime.

This 65th anniversary may be the last big anniversary that will be attended by D-Day veterans -- although there are still one surviving American and three British veterans of World War I, 95 years after that war began. In commemoration of The Longest Day, here are three classics that are becoming D-Day traditions in this space -- none the worse for having been posted before.

Ike's D-Day Address to the Allied Expeditionary Force

Click on the picture for a link to an image of the original document, in which -- like FDR in his address to the nation above -- Ike shamefully tears down the "wall" between church and state.

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the german war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of hte world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Infallibility, However Much It Hurts

One of the comments to this piece of Fr. Z's about Francis Cardinal Stafford stepping down as Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary (not the Big House) led me to read The Year of the Peirasmòs - 1968 by Cardinal Stafford. It was published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, and deals with the howls of dissent from within the Church that greeted Pope Paul VI's encyclical in 1968.

Cardinal Stafford describes his experiences in 1968 as a priest who, having seen through his ministry "the bitter fruits of the estrangement of men and women," and of the separation of the unitive and procreative aspects of sexuality, dissented from the dissenters. "The summer of 1968," he recalls, "is a record of God’s hottest hour. The memories are not forgotten; they are painful. They remain vivid like a tornado in the plains of Colorado. They inhabit the whirlwind where God’s wrath dwells. In 1968 something terrible happened in the Church. Within the ministerial priesthood ruptures developed everywhere among friends which never healed. And the wounds continue to affect the whole Church. The dissent, together with the leaders’ manipulation of the anger they fomented, became a supreme test. It changed fundamental relationships within the Church. It was a Πειρασμός [peirasmòs, in Greek, "trial," "test," "temptation"] for many.

As I read, I was struck by a few lines (emphasis added):

...the Papal Commission sent its recommendations to the Pope. The majority advised that the Church’s teaching on contraception be changed in light of new circumstances. Cardinal Shehan [archbishop of Baltimore] was part of that majority. Even before the encyclical had been signed and issued, his vote had been made public although not on his initiative.

As we know, the Pope decided otherwise.

This is not the first I had heard of the findings of the papal commission, but it is the first time I have received this fact with such force. Here is a striking proof that the Church is not purely a human invention, and that therefore her visible head on earth cannot err in matters of faith and morals. If she were, then no doubt the Pope would have bowed to the papal commission's recommendations, and swung into line with increasingly vocal and strident public opinion on the subject of birth control. But instead, he stuck to the Truth, in spite of the cost -- and the cost was indeed appalling, as Cardinal Stafford describes.

Yet the harm done was not the product of the Pope's teaching, but of the actions of those who refused to listen to him. Cardinal Stafford describes the ruptures within the clergy resulting from the preference on the part of many for their own opinions over the teachings of the Magisterium. And today we are reaping the bitter fruits of the Sexual Revolution: abortion raised to the level of a constitutionally guaranteed right; burgeoning illegitimacy; the tidal wave of crime and other social pathologies stemming from fatherless families; the appalling degradation of women; the destruction of marriage as an institution that protects children.

Nevertheless, the loss is not total, thanks to a Pope who -- despite his faults and mistakes -- stood by the Truth, so that his prodigal sons and daughters would at least have a beacon to light their way back home once they came to their senses. The moment of Humanae Vitae's publication ranks with Clement VII's decision not to grant Henry VIII his hard-fought-for divorce from Catherine of Aragon, even though so many prominent persons were in favor of it, and even though he knew it would be the excuse for England to enter into schism. Moments like these prove that the Holy Spirit guides the Church, and that however close to the edge of the abyss He may allow her to go, He will never let her fall in.

This is the reason the Pope is infallible on questions of faith and morals: not for his own personal aggrandizement in the eyes of the world (of which Paul VI enjoyed precisely none on this occasion), but so that Faith and Truth may be preserved inviolate.

Meanwhile, Back at a REAL Catholic College...

How fortunate the Class of 2009 at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire: instead of witnessing the prostitution of their Catholic identity, they got to hear Francis Cardinal Arinze, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and all-around pistol who, several years ago, famously promised to give a turkey to anyone who could find the greeting, "Good morning everybody, did your team win last night?" in any liturgical books. Appropriately enough, the cardinal gave the commencement address on the subject of what constitutes a truly Catholic college, stating that right morals apply in every human endeavor, and formation in upright behavior is part of the mission of a Catholic college.

"What does it profit us," asked the cardinal, "if a student is an intellectual giant but a moral baby? if he or she can shoot out mathematical or historical facts like a computer but is unfortunately a problem for the parents, corrosive acid among companions in the college, a drug addict and sexual pervert, a disgrace to the school, a waste-pipe in the place of work and 'Case No. 23' for the criminal police? It is clear that intellectual development is not enough."

Cardinal Arinze went on to say that a Catholic university that is faithful to its calling will give society model citizens who are a credit to their families, their alma mater, the Church and the state. "It will prepare for us members of Congress or the Senate who will not say 'I am a Catholic, but ...' but rather those who will say 'I am a Catholic, and therefore....'"

Kaboom.

The Church and the Holocaust

Israel's media and other elites seem bent on whipping up anti-Catholic sentiment by raising a hue and cry about how Pope Benedict failed to offer a groveling apology on behalf of the Church for the Holocaust. Some are naming the Church as a culprit, and even Pope Benedict personally as a German, in the atrocities committed against the Jews during the Second World War.

So while it is true that nominal Catholics (including Hitler himself) helped perpetrate Nazi atrocities, it pays for us to remind ourselves what the true children of the Church, living by her teachings, were doing during the war. Here is a very, very short list:

St. Maximilian Kolbe

Franciscan priest, a prisoner at Auschwitz. In July of 1941, a prisoner from his barracks escaped; as a punishment, the guards chose ten men out of the barracks to be starved to death. One of them, Franciszek Gajowniczek, lamented for his wife and family; St. Maximilian approached the guards and offered his own life in place of Gajowniczek's. The offer was accepted. After three weeks of starvation and dehydration, St. Maximilian was dispatched by an injection of carbolic acid. The man he saved was later reunited with his wife (although his sons perished in the war), and lived to see the canonization of the priest who had given his life for him.

The Martyrs of Nowogrodek

When the Nazis arrested 120 citizens of Nowogrodek, Poland on July 18, 1943, the town's community of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth unanimously offered in prayer to take their places. In the name of their community, Sister Mary Stella, their superior, begged God that if the sacrifice of lives was needed, to take their lives in place of the imprisoned, who included their chaplain. On July 31, 1943, all but one of the sisters was arrested; the following day, they were taken out to the woods and shot, and buried in a common grave. Meanwhile, most of the other prisoners, including their chaplain, were spared.

St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

From afar, Edith Stein, who had been born and raised Jewish, discerned the fate that awaited her people at the hands of the Nazis. In 1933, she wrote: "I had heard of severe measures against Jews before. But now it dawned on me that God had laid his hand heavily on His people, and that the destiny of these people would also be mine." Six years later, in her last will and testament, the child who had been born on the Day of Atonement would offer herself up for the sake of atonement: "Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death...so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world." Although her order smuggled her to the Netherlands for her safety, she desired to share the fate of her Jewish brethren. This desire was granted on August 9, 1942, when St. Theresa Benedicta and her sister Rose, also a convert to the Faith, were murdered in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Bl. Hilary Pawel Januszewski

Carmelite friar. When the Gestapo came to arrest some friars out of the Carmel in Cracow in December of 1940, Fr. Hilary volunteered to go in place of a sick, elderly friar. He gave himself to the care of dying prisoners at Dachau, and died of typhus in 1945 -- just days before the camp was liberated.

Bl. Julia Rodzinska

A Dominican nun, Sr. Julia was interned in the Stuthoff concentration camp, where she gave herself to serving the Jewish women prisoners. She died of typhoid at the camp in 1945.

Bl. Natalia Tulasiewicz

Bl. Natalia Tulasiewicz was a teacher from Poznan, Poland. She volunteered to be deported with other women sent to do heavy slave labor in Germany in order to give them spiritual comfort. On finding out what she was up to, the Gestapo arrested and tortured her, and sent her to Ravensbruck concentration camp. On March 31, 1945 -- Good Friday -- Bl. Natalia used the little strength she had left to mount a stool and give the other prisoners a talk about the Passion and death of Jesus. Two days later, she was put to death in the gas chamber.

Stanislawa Leszczynska

Polish midwife, arrested by the Germans in 1943 and sent to work in Hell on earth, the "sick ward" at Auschwitz. She delivered more than 3,000 babies at Auschwitz, and made sure every one was baptized. Miraculously, despite the unspeakable conditions, she never lost a single mother or child in childbirth, though few of the babies survived the war. Despite threats on her life, she flatly refused to drown newborns, even facing down the notorious Dr. Mengele. She died in 1974, and is still venerated in Poland. Evidence is being gathered for her cause for sainthood.

Bl. Franz Jägerstätter

Austrian farmer, husband and father of four. Jägerstätter was outspokenly anti-Nazi, and was the only one in his village to vote against the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Germany). After being drafted in the German army and serving for a brief period, he refused to serve any further, and was arrested. He spent time in prison before finally being beheaded, saying that it was better for his children to live without a father than for them to keep their father as a Nazi collaborator.

Bl. Maria Restituta Kafka

A Franciscan Sister of Charity, Bl. Maria Restituta was born in Brno in what is now the Czech Republic. A trained nurse, she went to work at the hospital in Mödling, south of Vienna after World War I, eventually becoming the head surgical nurse. Her refusal to take down crucifixes that she had hung in the hospital, plus her writings critical to the regime, led to her arrest by the Gestapo on Ash Wednesday, 1942. She was eventually sentenced to death, and was beheaded on March 30, 1943. Here is the link to Pope John Paul II's homily on the occasion of her beatification.

Msgr. Angelo Roncalli (Bl. John XXIII)

Working from Istanbul with Chaim Barlas of the Jewish Agency Rescue Committee, Msgr. Roncalli arranged for false papers, transit passes, false baptismal certificates and other documents that made it possible for thousands of Jews to escape the slaughter in Europe.

And last (though only on this list) but certainly not least...

Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII)

Just a few of the things Pope Pius XII -- whom the Nazis mocked as a "Jew-lover," and whom Hitler plotted to kidnap -- did to save the Jews before and during World War II include:

-- As Cardinal Pacelli, helped to author Mit Brennender Sorge (With Burning Sorrow), Pope Pius XI's anti-Nazi encyclical
-- As Pope, calmly confronted Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop with a list of Nazi atrocities in Poland during a personal audience, to Ribbentrop's deep mortification
-- Ordered the opening of monastaries, convents and even cloisters to Jewish refugees
-- Sheltered thousands of Jews at Castel Gandolfo
-- Sheltered as many refugees in the Vatican as could make their way there, and kept the railway lines into the Vatican running so as to be able to supply for all their needs
-- Came up with 100 pounds of gold to ransom the Jews of Rome, whom the Nazis threatened with deportation during the occupation, never revealing what he had to melt down to get it
-- Personally intervened to halt the deportation of Jews out of Hungary, Romania and Slovakia
-- Contributed unstintingly to relief efforts, even personally assisting those affected by the devastation of air strikes in Rome
-- Stuck to his post in Rome, despite the dangers to himself personally; his mere presence was a hindrance to Nazi atrocities in Rome

It is worth noting that when, after the war, Israel Anton Zoller, Chief Rabbi of Rome from 1939 to 1945, converted to Catholicism, he took the baptismal name Eugenio Zolli in honor of Pope Pius XII.

No, it is not the Catholic Church that owes an apology for the Holocaust. If any apologies are owed, they are owed by people whose blind hatred of the Church makes them equally blind to the facts, and enemies of the truth.