Robert Royal - The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History

GEORGE WEIGEL A literary achievement ... Essential reading for anyone who cares about the Church in the modern world.

MICHAEL NOVAK This book is Robert Royals masterpiece.

BOOKLIST An eloquent, painstakingly researched tribute to those ordinary human beings who managed to meet oppression and death with extraordinary dignity, grace, and faith.

THE CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW Essential to understanding fully what really happened in the twentieth century.

COMMONWEAL A real achievement ... a wealth of factual material.

CRISIS Royals book deserves the widest possible distribution. It acquaints the reader not only with those who made the ultimate sacrifice but with the obligation of all people to abide by the moral lawwhether from revelation or reason.

FIRST THINGS A landmark book.

LIBRARY JOURNAL Comprehensive ... balanced ... reasoned.

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER A masterpiece.

THE

CATHOLIC

MARTYRS

OF THE

TWENTIETH

CENTURY

A COMPREHENSIVE

WORLD HISTORY

ROBERT ROYAL

A Herder & Herder Book

The Crossroad Publishing Company

New York

The Crossroad Publishing Company

www.crossroadpublishing.com

Copyright 2000 by Robert Royal

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Card Number: 00-102839

ISBN-10 0-8245-1846-2 hc

ISBN-13 978-0-8245-1846-2 hc

ISBN-10 0-8245-2414-4 pb

ISBN-13 978-0-8245-2414-2 pb

This printing: November 2017

For My Mother and Father, who made everything possible

THE EARLY TIMES OF PURITY AND TRUTH have not passed away! They are present still! We are not solitary though we seem so. Few now alive understand or sanction us; but those multitudes in primitive time, who believed, and taught, and worshiped as we do, still live unto God, and, in their past deeds and their present voices, cry from the Altar. They animate us by their example; they cheer us by their company; they are on our right hand and our left. Martyrs, Confessors, and the like, high and low, who used the same Creeds, and celebrated the same Mysteries, and preached the same Gospel as we do. And to them were joined, as ages went on, even in fallen times, nay, even now in times of division, fresh and fresh witnesses from the Church below. In the world of spirits there is no difference of parties.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, Sermons

Under the Wormwood Star bitter rivers flowed.

Man in the fields gathered bitter bread.

No sign of the divine care shone in the heavens.

The century wanted homage from the dead.

They traced their origin to the dinosaur

And took their deftness from the lemurs paw.

Above the cities of their thinking lichen,

Flights of pterodactyls proclaimed the law.

They tied the hands of man with barbed wire.

And dug shallow graves at the edge of the wood.

There would be no truth in his last testament.

They wanted him anonymous for good.

The planetary empire was at hand.

They said what was speech and what was listening.

The ash had hardly cooled after the great fire

When Diocletians Rome again stood glistening.

CZESLAW MILOSZ, The Wormwood Star

THE BIRTH OF A BOOK is at least as complicated as the birth of a human being. Before a single word has been put on paper or the vaguest outline been sketched, a number of lucky coincidences or providential interventions have to take place. The present volume is living proof of that truth. I have written several books, but none of them has made me more aware of the debt I owe to my mother and father for a whole range of human and divine possibilities. They showed me my first examples of quiet fidelity and courage in everyday life. In my mind, they occupy a natural place in the larger vistas of Christian virtue alongside some of the figures described in these pages.

The immediate genesis of this book reflects the powerful and unpredictable action of martyrs in the world. When John Paul II issued his encyclical Tertio Millennio Adveniente (On the Third Millennium) in preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000, he mentioned, almost as an aside, that the twentieth century was a century of martyrs whose witness should not be forgotten. A group of lay people reading the encyclical at Saint Aloysius Parish in New Canaan, Connecticut, were somehow galvanized by those brief words. They began collecting files on twentieth-century martyrs. Word of their activities spread spontaneously, and people from every continent sent books, pamphlets, martyrologies of religious orders, private correspondence a blizzard of material on martyrs, previously scattered over the face of the earth, became one of the most extensive archives about the subject in North America. Carole Pinard bravely kept track of this increasingly complicated material. Monsignor J. Peter Cullen, pastor of Saint Aloysius, generously supported the project at every stage. My brother, Father Kevin Royal, rector of Saint John Fisher Seminary, encouraged the burgeoning excitement about the martyrs stories and provided hospitality during consultation of the Saint Aloysius files. At a certain point, the lay people and clergy involved in this miraculous growth realized that order should be drawn out of these disparate materials. I hope the present book fulfills everything they hoped for.

For help with research into some difficult and obscure material, I would first like to thank Greek Catholic bishop Michael Hrynchyshyn, president of the Commission for New Martyrs, and Professor Marco Bartoli of the same commission for his hospitality while I worked in their picturesque offices on the Isola Tiberina in Rome. The following chapters make extensive use of the work that Didier Rance and the Aide lEglise en Dtresse in Paris have produced about the persecuted churches over the past two decades: several of his volumes should be translated into English some day. Also, though I only discovered his work well into this project, Father Vincent Lapomarda, S.J.s bibliographies on twentieth-century martyrs around the world are a veritable gold mine deserving of further attention. Thanks also to the Ukrainian Study Center and the Most Reverend Basil H. Losten, bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese in Stamford, Connecticut.

For various kindnesses, recommendations, encouragement, and services rendered let me recognize: The Most Reverend Edward M. Egan, Ralph McInerney, Michael Novak, Virgil Nemoianu, Seamus Hasson, Lee Edwards, Margaret Heckler, Richard Higgins, Edward Feulner, Brad Miner, Annette Kirk, Jeff Nelson, Deal Hudson, Bartholomew De la Torre, O.P., Dennis Bartlett, and Paul Goble.

My wife, Veronica, improved my understanding of various figures in this book in a myriad of ways. Elizabeth Royal helped retype the manuscript. Jason Boffetti, as ever, guarded against the ever present danger that the electronic version of the text might slip into an ignoble eternity in cyber-limbo.

An extensive research project like this one can take place only with substantial financial help. I would like to thank James Piereson of the John M. Olin Foundation for early and quick support that got the ball rolling. Michael Joyce and Daniel Schmidt at the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation came to the rescue more than once as the well was running dry. Bob Lockwood and the Our Sunday Visitor Foundation went out of their way to help. The Strake Foundation in Texas kept body and soul together at a crucial juncture. Mrs. Anne Seggerman, occupied with many causes and commitments, still managed to be personally generous to this endeavor, as was Foster Friess. And Mary Schwarz and Monsignor Eugene Clark of the Homeland Foundation made the final months less precarious. To all these benefactors, heartfelt thanks and hopes that the product repays the investment.