Pilgrims hold umbrellas during a heavy rainfall before Pope Francis’ Mass at the Marian shrine, in Sumuleu Ciuc, Romania
Pope Francis paid homage yesterday to Catholics who were persecuted, tortured and killed during Romania’s communist regime by beatifying seven bishop martyrs on his third and final day in the country.
Francis presided over the eastern rite liturgy in Blaj, a stronghold of the Greek-Catholic Church that was outlawed during communism.
The seven bishops had been arrested and imprisoned between 1950 and 1970 for adhering to their faith.
Francis held them up as models for the Romanian faithful today, saying they “gave their lives to oppose an illiberal ideological system.”
“These lands know well how greatly people suffer when an ideology or a regime takes over, setting itself up as a rule for the very life and faith of people, diminishing and even eliminating their ability to make decisions, their freedom and their room for creativity,” he said.
He warned that new ideologies were threatening Romanian families today — an apparent reference to gender issues, gay marriage and other secular trends that Francis has previously blasted as Western “ideological colonization” over others.
“Forms of ideological colonization that devalue the person, life, marriage and the family, and above all, with alienating proposals as atheistic as those of the past, harm our young people and children, leaving them without roots from which they can grow,” he said.
The chant-filled Mass followed the Byzantine rite of the Greek-Catholic church, which is loyal to Rome. The liturgy itself was celebrated by a Greek- Catholic bishop, but it marked the first time that Francis had presided over an eastern rite liturgy as pope, the Vatican said.
It was celebrated on the symbolic “Field of Liberty,” a huge expanse east of Blaj that was the site of an important nationalist rally in 1848. A century later, communist leaders marking the anniversary at the field demanded that Greek-Catholics join the Orthodox church.
Many refused, and thousands of priests were incarcerated in communist prisons, including the seven being beatified yesterday. AP
No Comments