(OSV News) Polish church leaders have welcomed renewed calls for the beatification of a popular priest, Father Franciszek Blachnicki (1921-1987), following official confirmation that he was killed by communist secret police agents. Most Poles still feel a sense of unfulfilled justice, and the murder of priests forms part of this particularly when attempts to uncover the truth still face impediments, said Father Piotr Mazurkiewicz, former secretary-general of COMECE, the Commission of th
CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).
Catholics in Poland are commemorating the fifth of the country’s diocesan priests who were murdered in World War II as they mark the Day of Martyrdom of the Polish Clergy.
Around 2,000 of Poland’s 10,000 diocesan priests perished during the Nazi German occupation. They are among those remembered on April 29, the day of commemoration of martyred clergy, instituted by the Polish bishops.
Bishop Grzegorz Suchodolski of Siedlce was due to preside at a live-streamed Mass marking the day at the National Shrine of St. Joseph in Kalisz, central Poland, at noon local time.
April 29 is the day on which the U.S. Army liberated the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.