Prayers for the Church of Silence


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The Catholic Bishops of the United

States of America, gathered together in

their annual assembly at Washington, pro=

claim to all their faithful priests and peo=

pie the solemn duty of INSTANT and

CONSTANT prayer for our suffering

Brethren of the Church of Silence.

—Bishops’ Statement, 1953



Players

h
llte CLicL ojj ettce

by

Fr. Theodore Zaremba, O.F.M.

Pulaski, Wis.

1954



Ex parte Ordinis
NIHIL OBSTAT

Fr. Raphael Januszewski, O.F.M.
Censor Deputatus

NIHIL OBSTAT

John A. Schulien, S.T.D.
• Censor librorum

IMPRIMI POTEST

Fr. Theophanes Kalinowski, O.F.M.
Minister Provincialis

Pulaski, Wis. die 22 ianuarii, 1954

IMPRIMATUR

t Albertus Q. Meyer

Archiepiscopus Milwaucliiensis

Milwauchiae, die 6 februarii, 1954

2-54--40M Copyright, 1954



CONTENTS
Page

Introduction 4

Explanation of Prayers 9

Note of acknowledgement 10

READINGS:
1. Peter is Again in Chains _ 11

2. Why Persecution? 19
3. The Red Program 25

4. The Black Record of the
Reds 33

5. The Martyrs in Russia 40

6. Persecution in the Baltics _ 45

7. The Church of Silence
in Czechoslovakia 52

8. The Silent East 58

9. Martyrdom in Hungary 63

10. Catholic Poland in Chains _ 69

11. Red Terror in Yugoslavia _ 76
12. A Call to Intercession

and Prayer 83

SUPPLICATIONS FOR THE
CHURCH OF SILENCE 87

Act of Reparation 94

Prayer to Our Lady,
Help of Christians 95



INTRODUCTION

What is THE CHURCH OF SI-
TT LENCE?

THE CHURCH OF SILENCE is
the Church behind the Iron Curtain.

It is the Church which is suffering
persecution in Communist annexed
or controlled lands of Albania, Bul-

garia, China, Czechoslovakia, Estonia,
Hungary, Indo-China, Latvia, Lithu-
ania, North Korea, Poland, Rumania,
Russia, Transcarpathia, Ukraine,

Yugoslavia, and the eastern parts of
Austria and Germany.

Why is it called the CHURCH OF
SILENCE?

It is called THE CHURCH OF SI-
LENCE because the barbaric per-
secutions which have been unleashed
against it by its atheistic political
masters have silenced the official
spokesmen of the Church: its cardi-
nals, archbishops, bishops, priests

and religious.

4 —



Why should we pray for THE
CHURCH OF SILENCE?

Because we have been encouraged
repeatedly to pray for it. The Holy
Father and our own Hierarchy have
time and again brought this to our
attention. At their meeting in Wash-
ington in November of 1953, the Bish-
ops most clearly declared this to be
our duty. In a public statement en-
titled “Peter Is Again in Chains,”
they announced: “The Catholic Bish-
ops of the United States of America
... proclaim to all their faithful
priests and people the solemn duty
of instant and constant prayer for
our suffering brethren of the Church
of Silence.”

This should be reason sufficient
for the faithful who are obedient to
the voice of their leaders.

Another reason is that by prayer
we can help the Church of Silence.
We have an obligation to do so. This
obligation flows from our member-
ship in the Mystical Body of Christ
and our membership in the human
race.

— 5 —



How can our prayers help THE
CHURCH OF SILENCE?

Our prayers can be of aid to the
Church of Silence because they can
obtain at the throne of God the graces
necessary for our suffering brethren
to remain steadfast and courageous
witnesses to the truth of our Chris-
tian Faith.

All the faithful are members of the
one Mystical Body of Christ. Through-
out the ages various members of this
Mystical Body have been called upon
to testify, even unto physical death,
to the truth of our common Belief.
Today our fellow members of the
Mystical Body who find themselves
behind the Iron Curtain are suffering
one of the most terrifying persecu-
tions in all history. Their undaunted
spirit and courage are contributing
to make this one of the glorious peri-
ods in the annals of the Church. His-
tory will some day point to our times
to exemplify the greatness of Christ's
true Church.

We can and should contribute to
this greatness by petitioning God to

— 6



grant unto these modern Martyrs and
Confessors the necessary fortitude

and strength and, if it be His will, a
victorious termination of the persecu-

tions.

What else should we pray for?

We should also make reparation
to God for the infamous blasphemies
which are hurled against Him, His ho-
ly Mother, His Church and its saints.
For, just as we are all members of the
Mystical Body and whatever any of
its members suffer, we suffer; and
whatever contributes to the glory of
any of its members, also contributes
to our glory

; so also all human beings
are members of the great family of
humanity. Consequently, those who
are persecuting the Church and blas-
pheming God are members of the
human race; their sins are the sins
of humanity. We must make repara-
tion and penance for these sins. The
common brotherhood of man demands
this.

The example has already been set
by many bishops throughout the
world who have set aside periods of

— 7 —



time for special prayers of reparation
in connection with prayers for the
Church of Silence.

Thus, while the present time is a
time of suffering and glory for the
Church, the Mystical Body, it is
also a time of infamy and disgrace
for the human race. While history
points with glory to the martyrs of
the early Church, it points also with
scorn and shame at Nero and Caligula
and the other tyrants who led the ear-
ly persecutions against the Church.

* * *

— 8 —



EXPLANATION OF THE PRAYERS
The prayers in this booklet may be used

as a private devotion or as a separate pub-
lic devotion or in connection with some
other public devotion. They may be used
at any time or season. The Church of Si-
lence suffers in and out of season.

As arranged in this booklet, the prayers
follow this order:

1. Singing of any HYMN appropriate to
the season of the Church.

2. A READING or a sermon. (Twelve
readings are included in this booklet.

The “Introduction” to this booklet
can also serve as an introductory
reading.)

3. Recitation of the prayers entitled
SUPPLICATIONS For The CHURCH
OF SILENCE. (These prayers alone
may be added to any other service.)

4. If time and circumstances permit,
any other prayers appropriate to the
liturgical season MAY be added here.
Suggested: the Litany of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, the Rosary, the Litany
of the Blessed Virgin, short Stations
of the Cross, etc. If time does not
permit, no other prayers need be
added.

5. HYMN appropriate to the season of
devotion.

6. BENEDICTION of the Blessed Sacra-
ment.

7. Appropriate closing HYMN.
— 9 —



NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The material in the
READINGS is based on the latest
information available to the public

in December of 1953. Understandable dis-
crepancies exist between various scources

:

the American and British Catholic press;
the Catholic and secular press. Information
from behind the Iron Curtain is slow in
reaching the outside world. Besides the
general American Catholic magazines and
newspapers, the following sources of in-
formation were used: releases of the Na-
tional Catholic Welfare Conference; the
In ter- Catholic Press Agency publications;
“News From Behind the Iron Curtain,”
publication of the National Committee For
a Free Europe, Inc.

;
the London newspaper

“Catholic Herald”; and other foreign Cath-
olic periodical literature of a general na-

ture.

* * *

MAY THESE SUPPLICATIONS.
THROUGH THE MERCY OF GOD,

IMPLORE NEW STRENGTH
FOR OUR BRETHREN

OF THE CHURCH OF SILENCE!

— 10 —



READINGS

PETER IS AGAIN IN CHAINS

(The following statement was issued
by the American Archbishops and Bishops
at their annual meeting in November
of 1953.)

^he heroic constancy of the Martyrs
and the unwavering witness of

the confessors have always been pre-
eminent among the signs that distin-
guish and identify the True Church
of Jesus Christ. Look where you will
in Europe and in Asia, in every land
now shrouded in the gloom of Com-

— ll —



munism, and you will see the solid
phalanx of bishops, priests, religious
and faithful, our modern Martyrs and
Confessors, gathered around the
Cross of Christ, the Standard of Sal-
vation — the one steady light which
still shines in the general darkness.

We in the free countries still speak
of a cold war; these men and women
are enduring the bitterest, the blood-
iest persecution in all history.

Shepherds of the Flock of Christ
are hunted down, imprisoned, de-
based, tortured, slain. Sick and help-
less Sisters are dragged from their
convents, condemned to the slow
death of forced labor on roads, in
forests, and in mines, or to the quick-
er death of starvation. Peasants are
slaughtered and flung upon the
pyres of their burning churches.
Innocent children are torn from the
arms of their Christian mothers and
handed over to atheist debauchers.

It is a war against all who believe
in God and His Christ, against all who
dare to claim for man the liberty of
the sons of God. It rages from Korea
to China and to Indo-China; from

— 12 —



Russia to the Baltic lands ; from
Poland and Lithuania to Yugoslavia;
from the Ukraine to Albania; from
Czechoslovakia to Hungary, to Ru-
mania and Bulgaria; it rages in the
eastern parts of Austria and Ger-
many. And everywhere the Church
of God, her sacred ministers and her
faithful children are the first targets

of the persecution. Millions of them
have already died for the Faith. Who
shall count the number of those who
are now suffering and marked for
death ?

This is a war against the True
Religion of Jesus Christ. When will
men in the free world come to realize
that the crisis of today is first of all
a crisis of religion, that the Commu-
nist debaser of man is essentially
a hater of God, that his long-range
and his short-range purpose is the
destruction of Christianity? From
Marx to Malenkov, the Communist
sees Christ as the enemy to be ex-
terminated.

Is it not, then, the strange anomaly
of our times that a calculated con-
fusion has been able to hide from so

— 13 —



many of our people the primary, the
changeless purpose of the enemy?
How few there are who understand
that the struggle for liberty is a war-
fare against the fanatical foes of

Christ ! How few there are who know
that millions of Catholics have al-
ready died that the rest of us might
live!

Here is a story of epic nobility, of
unsurpassed human grandeur, of
deathless spiritual devotion. Our Mar-
tyrs and Confessors are the glory of
the age in which we live. One would
have thought that the western world
would rise as one man to do them
reverence, would write their deeds
of valor in letters of enduring gold.
Instead, indifference, scant notice or

silence. Only in the Catholic press
will you find the Martyrology which
the historians of tomorrow will ac-
count the greatest glory of today.
Who can now recall the chroniclers

of Nero’s day? But the names of Peter
and Paul have endured throughout
the centuries. Above their tombs rise
the noblest temples of Christendom,
and pilgrims come in multitudes un-
numbered to remember and to pray.

— 14 —



Nor can history be kind to those
men of state who retreated to the re-
fuge of a polite neutralism while the

crucial battle of our times was being
fought.

History can record only in reproba-

tion that while Nero raged in the
East against the true Church of
Christ, the Voltaires of the West
raised their olden cry “Ecrasez Pln-
fame“ [Crush the Wretch] and sought
to crush these valiant fighters for

God and human freedom. Genuine
philosophy must list Nero and Vol-
taire as allies. History will register

the fact of that alliance in the War-
saw maneuver which would cut off
from help the champions of the
authentic liberties.

And what shall we say of those un-
generous men, who in the crisis of our
times have been found so sadly
wanting — these narrow sectarians
who allowed their petty or their
imagined grievances to obscure the
true greatness of our blessed Martyrs
and Confessors? We shall leave them
to God and to the worm of their con-
science, as we pray “Father, forgive

— 15 —



them for they know not what they
do.”

The Catholic Bishops of the United
States of America, gathered together
in their annual assembly at Wash-
ington, proclaim to all their faithful

priests and people the solemn duty of
instant and constant prayer for our
suffering Brethren of the Church of
Silence. When Peter was in prison,
the Church prayed without ceasing
for him, and the Angel of the Lord
touched him and the chains fell off
from his hands. Peter is again in
chains.

Let there then be supplication to
God and penance that His grace be
poured out in superabundant meas-
ure to strengthen those who hold the
place of honor and of danger in the
new warfare launched against the
Church. Let us all cherish in our
hearts the epic story of our own Mar-
tyrs and Confessors. Let us tell this
story to our children that they may
learn the names of Stepinac and
Mindszenty and Wyszynski, of Beran,
of Cule, of Ford and of Byrne, along
with the heroes of the Faith in ages

— 16 —



past that they may understand how
great it is to be a Catholic.

And let us raise our voices, in
a unison of protest, a protest that

will penetrate into the consciences of

all decent men, into all the chancel-
leries of the world, against this new
scourge of God and man.

To our brother bishops, to the
priests, religious and people of the
Church of Silence, we send affection-
ate greeting and the tribute of our
devotion, of our admiration, of our
entire solidarity. We salute you; we
embrace you; we minister in spirit
to your necessities ; we bind in prayer
the wounds you suffer for justice’s
sake. For you are blessed when the
enemies of Christ persecute and revile
you. You are the light of the world,
giving to our generation that saving
example of fidelity spoken of by St.
Paul: “Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall privation or

distress, or famine or nakedness, or
danger, or persecution or the sword?
As it is written: For Thy sake, we
are put to death all the day long. We
are accounted as sheep for the slaugh-
ter.

17 —



“But in these things we overcome
because of Him that hath loved us.”

Indeed your Faith is the victory
which overcometh the world. By your
stripes will the modern world be
healed.

Peter’s Successor Who is Pius
spoke the deepest sentiments of our
own hearts when He said to you:
“We embrace you with a special love
and we kneel to kiss your chains.”

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 18 —



WHY PERSECUTION?

“This is a war against the True
Religion of Jesus Christ.”

—Bishops’ Statement, 1953

Persecution of the Catholic Church
is not a novelty. Neither is it unex-
pected. The Divine Founder of the
Church had foretold it more than
nineteen centuries ago: “Remember
the word that I have spoken to you:
No servant is greater than his master.
If they have persecuted me, they will
persecute you also.” (John 15,20)

History has recorded that the Cath-
olic Church from the very days of its
infancy has produced a long list of
glorious Martyrs whose blood has
made fertile the work of the Church.
Beginning with St. Stephen and the
universal persecution of Christians

in the Roman Empire, countless
Christians down through the ages
have gained the crown of heavenly
glory by giving their lives in witness
to their Faith.

This crown of glory was also prom-
ised by the Founder: “Blessed are

— 19 —



you when men reproach you, and per-
secute you, and, speaking falsely, say
all manner of evil against you, for my
sake. Rejoice and exult, because your
reward is great in heaven; for so did
they persecute the prophets who were
before you.” (Matt. 5,11-12)

One of the beatitudes spoken in the
sermon on the mount was: “Blessed
are they who suffer persecution for
justice’s sake, for theirs is the king-

dom of heaven.” (Matt. 5,10)

Thus the Church of God expects
persecutions. They are a sign that
the Church is steadfastly clinging to
and guarding the heritage of Truth
which it had received from its Foun-
der. For there would be no persecution
if the Church would agree to the
terms imposed by man. But the
Church continues to obey and teach
the laws of God.

Take the example of the Church
behind the Iron Curtain. The Church
would suffer no persecution if it would
agree to become a pawn in the hands
of the atheistic governments control-
ling the earthly destiny of the mil-

lions of people behind that curtain.

— 20 —



There would be no persecution if the
Church would agree to teach what
the Communist regimes want it to
teach.

But the Church cannot do this. It
must teach the Truth that was taught
by its Founder, Jesus Christ.

The Communists say that there is
no God. They say that Jesus Christ
never existed. They say that they
have no use for any religion. They say
that they will eradicate all religion.
And because they have said these
lies, they very logically have had to
say a thousand and a million other
lies : that man has no soul

;
that

there is no future life ; that there will
be no reward for a good life nor
punishment for an evil one ; that
parents have no right to educate their
children; that man has no freedom
of expression; that man has no right
to the fruit of his labors; that the

only source of authority and truth is
the state ; that if the state says black

is white, the citizens must also say
that black is white; and thousands
upon thousands of similar lies.

And even while the Communist

— 21



governments can hoodwink many by
these lies, and even while they can
bludgeon into agreement various
human organizations and entire na-
tions, the Church of God will never
permit itself either to be hoodwinked
or to be bludgeoned into saying that
black is white.

The Church continues and will con-
tinue to teach Truth : that there
is a God ; that there is a true religion

;

that there are laws of morality; that
there is a future life; that good will
be rewarded, and evil will be punish-
ed; that parents have a right to edu-
cate their children; that man has a
right to the fruit of his labors; that

black is black, and white is white.
The Church cannot do otherwise.

And so the Church is being bludg-
eoned. It is being maligned. Its lead-

ers are imprisoned, tortured and
executed. Those who believe in God
and obey His laws are discriminated
against and punished. All true follow-
ers of Christ, however, continue to
hold to the Truth : white is white, and
black is black. This they will continue
to say, even though their voice may

— 22 —



be beaten down to a whisper. This
they will say with their last breath.
For this is the truth ! And even when
they will be silenced, their very si-

lence will shout this truth!

The militant atheistic Communists
have not learned their history well.
They should have learned that long
after the Neros of this world passed
into ignominious defeat and failure,
the Church continued to flourish
with the added brilliance of the Mar-
tyrs who had been their victims.

They should have learned that the
Church cannot be liquidated the way
purely human organizations and in-
stitutions are liquidated. Otherwise
the Church would have long ago suc-
cumbed to former persecutors. Yes,
the Church can be silenced for a short
time; but even that silence is elo-
quent. The Church can be placed in
chains; but even chains will rust a-
way, and their clanking meanwhile
will proclaim the truth.

The Church will not cease to per-
form its God-given task because of
tortures, lies, or any other force. The
Church of God is a divine institution

— 23 —



with the assurance of its Founder
that even the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. All that the ene-

mies of the Church will accomplish
will be to add lustre and power and
glory to the Church in the form of
new pages in its martyrology.

Let us pray that the example of
our modern Martyrs and Confessors
of the Church of Silence may merit
sufficient grace of perseverance for
all who call themselves Christians
and the grace of repentance and con-
version for their persecutors.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 24 —



THE RED PROGRAM

“This is a war against all who
believe in God and His Christ,
against all who dare to claim
for man the liberty of the Sons
of God.”

—Bishops’ Statement. 1953
The long range plan of the atheistic

Communist regime entrenched in the
Kremlin is the total elimination of all
religion. This goal was set by Marx.
It was never abandoned.

Experence, however, and the advice
of Lenin that direct assaults on reli-
gion usually strengthen the resist-
ance, have been instrumental in for-
mulating also a short range policy
and pattern to the manner in which
the Communists wage war on religion.
The general outlines of this pattern
are easily observed in the various
areas controlled by the Communists.
The most advanced stage is found
in Russia.

In Russia at present the Russian
Orthodox Church is an instrument
of the political power of the State.
The totalitarian regime uses the

— 25 —



Church as it would any other useful
instrument to help keep the people
in subjection. This is the goal of the
short range plan.

In the meantime the regime also
fosters an atheistic atmosphere in
which it is bringing up a de-Christian-
ized generation, which eventually will
have no need of a Church. When that
day arrives, the Church will be liqui-
dated. The long range goal will have
been attained; the short term goal
will have served its purpose.

These two goals then are the basis
of the present policy and pattern
of Communist tactics within the an-
nexed territories and the dominated
countries. One must distinguish be-
tween these two.
Within the annexed territories the

realization of the short range objec-
tive, the creation of a State-dominated
Church, has progressed more rapidly
for a number of easily understood
reasons. The Soviet regime either
simply abolished all Churches except
the one that was willing to become
a tool of the State or by decree forced
an Orthodox or “national” religion
to serve as such a tool.

— 26 —



A State-dominated Church of this
type is used then to support collectiv-
ization drives, industrial speedup
campaigns, hate-the-West, hate-
America, hate-the-Vatican publicity,
and such “peace campaigns” as the
Stockhom Peace Appeal of 1950, the
Berlin Peace Meeting of 1951, and
the Vienna People’s Congress for
Peace of 1952.
The Kremlin had to proceed with

lessened tempo in the Communist
dominated countries, which must
have the semblance of a People’s
Republic. Also it was content to exert
disproportionately greater effort to

attain the short term objective rather
than to create an atheistic atmos-
phere.

To arrive at this objective of State
control and utilization of any religion
or Church, the puppet regime uses
tactics which, while they make it
impossible for the Church or Church-
es (generally there are more) to per-
form their spiritual functions effec-
tively, create conditions favorable for

the State to utilize the organization

and prestige of the Churches to de-
fend Communist thinking.

— 27 —



Such tactics usually involve the fol-
lowing steps: 1) expropriation of the
Churches and their consequent eco-
nomic dependence on the State

; 2) use

of the economic control to split the
clergy, generally by sponsoring a pro-
Communist clergy movement; 3) si-
lencing the hierarchy and choking
off its ability to fight back by a heavy
and strict censorship of Church pub-
lications and sermons, usually follow-
ed by the suppression of all Church
publications or permitting one publi-
cation to funtion under a pro-regime
policy; 4) imposition of loyalty oaths

on all the clergy, thereby giving the
regime the opportunity to replace the
opposition within the ruling hierarchy
wth its own adherents; 5) while em-
phatically insisting upon the sepa-
ration of Church and State, the re-
gime places the Church or Churches
under some political office of ecclesi-
astical affairs, making the State there-
by the chief and sole final authority
in religious affairs. The Churches
thereupon become tools of the State.

In the meantime the State care-
fully and by progressively more ef-
fective measures cuts off all foreign

— 28 —



support and relationships with co-
religionists, brother Churches, inter-

national religious conclaves or the

Vatican.

“Compromise” agreements between
individual Churches and the State ac-
company these various steps. The
State always succeeds “to prove” that
the Church has violated the previous
agreement : succeeding agreements
always give the State increasing con-
trol over the Church.

To add to the internal pressures on
the Churches the regime will play
one Church against another. The re-
ligion which has already compromised
more will receive seemingly greater
benefits from the government. While
such benefits are short-lived, they
serve the purpose of weakening other
Churches to make similar compro-
mises.

Thus the Orthodox Churches in Al-
bania, Bulgaria, Poland and Rumania
were converted into instruments of
the State.

Certain minority religions suffered
more drastic fates. The Uniate Church
organizations in Poland and Rumania

— 29 —



were completely suppressed by com-
pulsory “conversion” to and a merger
with the Eastern Orthodox Church,
already a tool of Communism.

In Albania, Hungary, Rumania, and
even in parts of Czechoslovakia the
regimes suceeded in partially trans-
forming the Roman Catholic Church,
which is usually the most adamant
in its stand against Communism, in-
to “national” Catholic Churches un-
der government domination.

The puppet regimes were able to
place pro-regime clergymen in most
of the Protestant religious groups.
The Communists even left these Pro-
testant groups a semblance of “free-
dom” in order to make use of their
connections with the West and to ex-
ploit such connections for spreading
Communist propaganda.

Other minor religious groups were
also changed into State instruments.

Those who oppose this process pay
the penalty. Trumped up charges, im-
prisonment, deportation, tortures,

privations, even death are their lot.

Though not alone, the Catholic
Church stands in the foreground in

— 30 —



its opposition to these tactics of the

Communists, not only in virtue of its
size, which makes it numerically the
largest single Church within the dom-
inated territories of Europe, but more
so because of its Divine character

whereby the grace of God is operative
not only in the hierarchical organiza-

tion of the Church but also in the
least of its members.

Of secondary importance at pre-
sent, but certainly not neglected, is
the creation of the atmosphere of
atheism which eventually will produce
a de-Christianized generation which
will repudiate all religion and every
Church. The chief instruments em-
ployed by the regimes to create such
an atmosphere are antireligious cam-
paigns within the youth movements,
education of the youth in Marxist-
Leninist principles, systematic re-

duction of religious practices, imped-
ing liturgical and ritual observances,
official regulations hampering Chris-
tian practices, and many other similar
indirect means. Antireligious propa-
ganda is encouraged and widely dis-
seminated, but the defense of religion
is prohibited.

— 31 —



By such various steps the Catholic
Church, in varying degrees, has been
reduced to a status of suffering in si-
lence. Let us pray for this Church of
Silence that its suffering, God willing,
be shortened and that its silence may
be broken by a song of exultation
and joy at having been tried and
tested in the crucible and not found
wanting.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 32 —



THE BLACK RECORD
OF THE REDS

“Millions of them have already
died for the Faith.”

—Bishops’ Statement, 1953

Like a volcano spewing lava, ashes
and destruction over large expanses
of neighboring land, so the caldron

of all that is evil which has erupted
in Russia under the guise of Com-
munism has engulfed all neighboring
lands and peoples.

Atheistic Communism was not sa-
tiated by the persecution of religion
within Russia, but it had to spill over
into adjoining territories to carry
similar destruction to its neighbors.

It had to do this because it is deter-
mined to engulf the entire world.

Let us look at the bits of informa-
tion concerning this diabolical fury
against the Church that have trickled
through the Iron Curtain. Of neces-
sity the information is meager and
incomplete. The list of Martyrs and
Confessors grows longer with each
passing day.

— 33 —



The 100,000 Catholics of Albania
have seen their Apostolic Delegate
expelled, two bishops executed and
an archbishop die in prison. Nearly
all the male religious have been ei-
ther killed or expelled. The rest are
scattered or in hiding. One of every
five women religious has been con-
demned to forced labor or has been
interned.

The Catholic Church in Bulgaria,
whose membership was only about
45,000, is similarly paralized. One
bishop has been condemned to death
and another arrested. All religious
houses have been suppressed.

During the relatively short time
that Communism has been dominant
in the China mainland, at least 250
Chinese priests and religious been im-
prisoned, and more than 100 Chinese
priests and 28 religious have been put
to death. Foreign missionaries within

these territories have been reduced
from more than 5,000 to less than 300.
By the end of 1952 at least 68 foreign
missionary priests had either been
killed or had died in jail. New violent
waves of persecution occurred in 1953.

— 34 —



Toward the end of 1953 the total of
bishops and other heads of Sees who
had been imprisoned, expelled or oth-
erwise prevented from performing
their functions had grown to 96. This
number included 1 Cardinal, 18 arch-
bishops, 54 bishops, and 23 monsig-
nors serving as prefects, administra-

tors or visitators apostolic.

Similar conditions have developed
in all the Far East Catholic mission
areas which have fallen under Com-
munist sway. In Northern Korea
2 bishops are dead and 1 is in prison

;

in Indo-China 2 bishops have been
arrested.

In the seventy percent Catholic

Czechoslovakia the Communists have
shackled the Church by imprisoning
at least four bishops. One archbishop
and two bishops have been banished;
four more bishops were forcibly re-
moved from their office and detained
in unknown places. All Catholic
schools and many religious houses
have been suppressed.

A similarly deplorable condition
exists in Hungary, another seventy
percent Catholic country. The Cardi-

— 35 —



nal Primate, along with an archbish-
op and two bishops, has been impris-
oned. Another bishop and 21 priests
and religious have been executed.
More than 70 priests and religious
are in concentration camps or prison.
All schools have been closed and al-
most all religious houses have been
suppressed.

In 1940 Lithuania had a population
of 3 million. Eight of every ten
Lithuanians were Catholic. One of its
bishops was murdered by the Soviets

;

three bishops were deported and im-
prisoned, of whom one is reported to
have died in a Soviet prison. One
archbishop and two bishops are in
exile. Of the 1,482 priests who minis-
tered to souls in 1940, only about 100
remain. All seminaries and convents
have been liquidated.

Neighboring Latvia and Estonia,
who along with Lithuania had been
gobbled up by the Russians at the out-
break of the second world war, have
two bishops in exile and an archbish-
op in prison. Most of the clergy was
also deported.

The 96 percent Catholic Poland has
seen its Cardinal Primate arrested

— 36 —



along with an archbishop and at least
eight bishops. More than 2,000 Polish
priests have been either imprisoned,
deported or forced into exile. At least
37 are known to have been put to
death. Religious persecution has been
stepped up in 1953.
From Rumania, whose 1,700,000

Catholics constituted about 17 percent
of the population, the Papal Nuncio
was expelled

;
twelve bishops were

either imprisoned or deported. Two
of the bishops have died in prison.
At least 55 priests have been killed
and another 700 either imprisoned or
sent to forced labor.

In Russia the number of all con-
gregations has dropped 75 percent
since 1917. None of the former Cath-
olic, Protestant, Jewish, Mohamme-
dan or other minority faiths is even
tolerated. Only the Orthodox Church
is tolerated

; its priests are dominated
by the regime and used by it to help
rule the people. But the Communists
have frequently said that they are
using this pawn only for a time, that
eventually it will be liquidated. Offi-
cially the Catholic Church is non-
existent in Russia. The list of Martyrs

— 37 —



and Confessors in Russia is a long
one.

In the Ukraine the Greek Catholic
Church was completely suppressed
and merged by forced conversions
with the puppet Orthodox Church of
Russia. At least two archbishops and
three bishops have died. In the Trans-
carpathia territory annexed to the
Ukraine after the war, at least one
bishop and 12 priests were killed

;

111 priests were deported, and 93 con-
demned to forced labor. Thousands
of the faithful were either deported
or interned.

The Communist regime in Yugo-
slavia imprisoned the Cardinal Arch-
bishop, murdered two bishops, in-
terned or exiled four more bishops,
and inducted three more into the
army. At least 348 priests have been
killed, and hundreds more are in
prisons. Two-thirds of the dioceses
have no bishops. About 300 religious
institutions have been suppressed in
Yugoslavia, which is one-third Cath-
olic.

This is part of the black record of

crimes which atheistic Communism

— 38



has perpetrated in its mad desire to
destroy the Catholic Church.

A rather exhaustive list prepared
by the National Catholic Welfare
Conference indicates that toward the
end of 1953 at least 4 Cardinals,
32 archbishops, 117 bishops and 32
monsignors, who served as prefects,
administrators or visitators apostolic,

have been persecuted by the Commu-
nists. These 185 Bishop-Martyrs have
been either murdered, expelled, im-
prisoned or otherwise impeded forci-
bly in the exercise of their office.

It is estimated that some 60 million
Catholics are found in the Church of
Silence in Europe alone. Of these a-
bout 10 million are in the territories
annexed to the Soviet Union; the re-
maining 50 million live in territories
dominated by the Communists.

Let us pray that this hideously
black record in the history of human-
ity can be sufficiently cleansed by the
blood of the Martyrs and the merits
of the Confessors so that the just
anger of God against mankind may
be duly propitiated.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 39 —



THE MARTYRS IN RUSSIA

“Let us cherish in our hearts the
epic story of our own Martyrs and
Confessors. Let us tell this story

to our children . .
—^Bishops’ Statement, 1953

The Catholic Bishops of our coun-
try have asked the faithful to cherish
the epic story of our Martyrs and
Confessors of the Church of Silence.
They desire that this story be told to
all that all may understand how great
it is to be a Catholic.

This epic story of modern heroism
in the face of ruthess religious per-

secution by Communism had its be-
ginning in Russia, where atheistic
Communism began its hideous experi-
ment.

Russia, of course, never was Roman
Catholic. She received her Christian-
ity from the Greek Church and fol-
lowed that Church into schism or
separation from Rome. Various at-
tempts at unification with Rome were
short-lived except for the Uniate
Church. Despite the tremendous ob-

— 40 —



stacles which they frequently had to
overcome, the Russian people have
proved to be truly religious. Their

capacities in this respect have never
been fully developed.

The Russian Orthodox Church
numbered about 90 million faithful
in 1917. Roman Catholics in Russia
proper numbered about 5 million.
Other Churches also existed.

Shortly after the Bolshevik revolu-

tion in 1917, all the Churches became
the object of persecution. Confisca-

tion of properties, abuse of clergy,
control of the press, control over

education, suppression of seminaries,

laws prohibiting church attendance,
and similar measures were applied.

The Communist leaders, pledged to
eradicate all belief in God, threw all
their might against the Churches.
By 1932 the Greek Orthodox Church
revered as martyrs some 58 bishops
and more than a thousand priests who
had given their lives in witness to the
freedom of their conscience.

The other Churches suffered cor-
responding losses. Archbishop Cieplak
and Monsignor Budkiewicz were out-

— 41 —



standing Catholic figures. Only the
protests of the entire civilized world
induced the Communists to mitigate
the saintly Archbishop’s death sen-
tence to life imprisonment. Monsignor
Budkiewicz was actually executed
on Good Friday, 1923.

The terror unleashed by the new
Soviet government against God claim-
ed thousands upon thousands of vic-
tims. God alone knows how many
gave their lives for their belief in
Him.

Father Edmund Walsh, S.J., Direc-
tor-General of the Papal Relief Mis-
sion to Russia during 1922 to 1923,
has this to say concerning the tor-
tures to which these Martyrs had to
submit

:

“The manner of their death is
a revolting page in the long annals
of man’s inhumanity to man. The
Archbishop of Perm was buried alive
after having his eyes put out. The
Bishop of Belgorod was cast into a pit
of quicklime. The Bishop of Youriew
was incarcerated in a cellar with com-
mon criminals, his nose and ears cut
off, and after being beaten merciless-

— 42



ly with a bayonet, was finally hacked
to pieces. The Archbishop of Voronej
was hanged before the altar of his
own church, while thoughout his arch-
diocese 160 priests were shot. Arch-
bishop Feofan, already at the point

of death from abuse, was carried to
a hole in the ice of a frozen river and
cast into the water. Another priest
at Tcherdin was stripped naked in the
cruel Russian winter and sprinkled
with cold water till he became a statue
of ice. In the case of certain other

priests condemned to death, crowns
of barbed wire were placed on their
heads before their execution. At Pol-
tava and at Kremenchoug the victims
were impaled. At Poltava . . . eighteen
ecclesiastics were impaled in one day.”

During 1929 some 1,370 churches
were either destroyed, closed or
transformed into playhouses or used
for other “public purposes.”

By 1930 half of the Catholic clergy
in Russia disappeared as victims of
murder, exile, starvation or imprison-
ment.

And the lists continued to grow
longer.

— 43 —



Simultaneously the Soviet regime
through its “Association of the God-
less” flooded the country with blas-
phemous atheist propaganda in an
effort to stamp out all belief in God.

And the lists of Martyrs grew long-
er.

The Orthodox Church finally be-
came a puppet of the State. Other
Churches went underground. Official-
ly they do not exist.

Perhaps no person knows the ac-
tual condition of all the Churches in
Soviet Russia. This much is known.
The masses of Russians still believe
in God. They are the best allies that
all believers in God in the West have
inside Russia.

And as the lists of Martyrs within
Russia grow longer with each day, let
us pray that God in His mercy may
grant sufficient strength and love to
the believers in Russia that they may
not only resist the onslaughts of the

impious but eventually may lead the
way for a general return to God and
true religious freedom.

(Turn to p. S7 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 44 —



PERSECUTION IN THE BALTICS

. . Men and women are enduring
the bitterest, the bloodiest perse=

cution in all history.”

—Bishops’ Statement, 1953

During the summer of 1940 the
Soviets entered the Baltic countries

of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

;

seized the control of their govern-

ments; and incorporated them into
the USSR. A ruthless antireligious
campaign was immediately begun.

Since then the Church properties
have been confiscated; religious or-
ganizations proscribed; the press li-

quidated; religious instructions have
been forbidden; taxes have been im-
posed on Church rites

; the clergy and
laity have been denounced, deported
and executed. All Churches have been
affected.

The status of the Catholic Church
prior to the persecution was as fol-
lows:

In LITHUANIA the Catholic
Church was the dominant Church.

— 45 —



About 80 percent of the three million
inhabitants of Lithuania were Cath-
olics. Some 1,646 priests served its
1,202 churhes ; the 681 parishes were
organized into 2 archdioceses and
4 dioceses. The hierarchy consisted
of 3 archbishops and 8 bishops.

Catholic lay organizations flourish-

ed. Half of all students in secondary
and higher education belonged to the
Ateitis Youth Movement. Four of the
seven most popular periodicals and
newspapers were Catholic ; between
300 and 400 religious books were pub-
lished annually. Free non-compulsory
religious education was provided by
the State in all public schools. Similar

freedom was enjoyed by all minor de-
nominations.

The Communists struck one great
blow at the Catholic organizations by
decreeing that all organizations which
had been established prior to June 20,
1940, “jeopardized public safety.”

Consequently they were suppressed;
the State took over the property,

archives, membership rosters and
funds of all the religious organiza-
tions. This nationalization of proper-

— 46 —



ties forced the religious — Marian,
Jesuit and Franciscan friars — into
exile. The Catholic press was sup-
pressed, and all stocks of religious
books were confiscated.

LATVIA’S population of two mil-
lion included a half million of Roman
Catholics and about 175,000 Greek
Orthodox Catholics. The Catholic
Church had enjoyed freedom

;
religion

was taught in the schools; a theo-
logical faculty existed at the State

University at Riga; Catholic semi-

naries flourished.

A nationalization law in July of
1940 confiscated all properties. The
new regime charged rent for the use
of the churches, which had been taken
over by the government. Exorbitant
taxes were levied for the use of
church records, regalia and equip-
ment. The administration of Sacra-
ments in churches became a very cost-
ly ceremony

;
an average monthly

wage was required to cover the taxes
connected with the ceremony of
a church wedding. Furthermore, the
government forbade services outside

— 47



of churches, such as those in ceme-
teries, schools or private homes.

The total population of ESTONIA
was only 1,250,000. There were only
2,268 Roman Catholics and 214,807
Greek Orthodox Catholics.

The antireligious campaign in Esto-
nia followed along the same lines as
in the two other Baltic countries.

In fact, the Soviets used two tech-
niques in destroying all traces of Bal-

tic culture and imposing their own
way of life upon the peope. The seizure
or nationalization of churches, schools,

seminaries, libraries, suppression of

religious and cultural organizations,
the spread of terror by arrest, im-
prisonment, deportation and murder
of the cultured elements within the
population was accompanied by iso-
lating the countries from the outside
world. Particular stress was laid on
severing all relations with the Vati-
can.

Religious instructions were out-
lawed in all three countries, and
courses in Marxist theory were intro-
duced in the schools. The courses were

— 48 —



supplemented by a barrage of atheis-
tic propaganda directed at the youth
in the press, on the radio, in youth
organizations, school celebrations, etc.

The text of a sample, a pamphlet
circulated in Estonia, entitled “The
Ten Commandments of Communism,”
follows

:

“1. Never forget that the clergy
are the greatest enemies of the Com-
munist state.

2. Try to convert your friends to
Communism. Remember that Stalin,
who has given a new Constitution to
the Russian people, is the leader of
the godless, not only in the USSR but
in the whole world.

3. Advise your friends to avoid
clergymen and Christians.

4. Beware of spies! Denounce sab-
oteurs !

5. Distribute atheistic literature a-

mong the population.
6. A good Komsomol youth is a

fighter for the cause of atheism. He
must known how to use his weapons
and harden himself in the art of war.

7. Fight the religious element

— 49 —



wherever you can and prevent its in-
fluence on your comrade.

8. A good godless youth must also
be a good policeman. It is the duty
of every godless youth to defend the
security of his country.

9. The godless movement grows
also by means of monetary contribu-
tions which are indispensable for for-
eign propaganda, which, owing to
present conditions, can only work
underground.

10. If you are not a convinced ad-
herent of the godless movement, you
cannot be a good Communist and
Soviet citizen. Atheism is inseparable
from Communism. Both these ideals
form the foundation of Soviet pow-
er.”

By June of 1941, a year after they
entered the countries, the Soviets had
destroyed the framework of Baltic
culture, flooded the country with
atheistic and Communist propaganda,
and had terrorized the populations.
Resistance was crushed by mass de-
portations and murder. Before they
retreated from the Nazi armies, the
Soviets had deported 65,000 Lithu-

— 50 —



anians, including 26 priests; 15 priests

were murdered. Latvia and Estonia
suffered similar terrors of deporta-

tion and murder.

When the Soviets returned in 1944,
they continued to persecute the

Churches with added fury. Six waves
of deportation have sent more than
half a million into exile. All churches
are now under State administration.
Many have been closed. Religious holi-
days have been declared illegal; Sun-
day services in churches have been
replaced by compulsory Communist
celebrations. An atmosphere of athe-
ism is energetically spread in all
spheres and by all known methods.

Let us pray for the Church of Si-
lence in the Baltic countries that de-

spite its small size it may continue
to merit God’s pleasure and our ad-
miration by its fearless adherence
to the true Faith.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 51 —



THE CHURCH OF SILENCE
IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

“It (Catholic Church) stands here
today — robbed, deprived of the
majority of its freedoms and
rights, dishonored, soiled, perse=

cuted secretly and openly.” .
—Pastoral Letter of

Archbishop Beran, June 26, 1949

The Catholic Church has always
played an active role in the cultural,
political and social life of the Czecho-
slovak people.

According to the 1930 census there
were more than 10 million Roman
Catholics in the 14 and a half million
population of this land. These 10 mil-
lion Catholics had been well organized
politically and culturally into three
Catholic political parties, trade unions,

welfare organizations, boy scouts and
other Catholic associations. The
Church enjoyed considerable freedom
in the management of its Catholic
educational system. Religious instruc-

tion was compulsory in primary and
grammar schools. The country could

— 52 —



boast of three Catholic weeklies, three

theological faculties and over a thou-
sand students in 14 Catholic semi-

naries.

The Catholics were guided by 3 arch-
bishops, 10 bishops and 7,000 priests.

Up to 1948 the new Communist
regime with calculated shrewdness
moderated its antireligious tactics
against the Catholic Church.

In March of 1948 the Land Reform
Law confiscated Church property as
the first step toward making the
Church subservient to the State.

The following month a new law
was passed, designed eventually to
eliminate religious instruction in

schools. “Appropriate officials’’ as-
serted State authority in education,
thereby eliminating the clerical au-
thority.

That same year two of the Cath-
olic weeklies were forced out of busi-
ness because of so-called “scarce ma-
terials” allocated by the Ministry of
Information. The third weekly became
a Communist paper. Simultaneously
the secular press was encouraged
to denounce the “anti-State activities”

— 53 —



of the Church and to promote atheistic
propaganda.

A Central Action Committee was
created which began to suppress Cath-
olic organizations, prepare attacks
upon the clergy, organize mass anti-
religious demonstrations, and merged
all Catholic youth organizations, un-
all Catholic youth organizations (as
“unnecessary”) into the State-spon-
sored Union for Czech Youth.

The regime impeded the American
National Catholic Welfare Confer-
ence’s refugee aid program to Czecho-
slovakia.

The summer of 1949 witnessed
further intensification of the struggle

between the State and Church. A
schismatic “Catholic Action” was
formed. Its purpose was to disorgan-
ize and confuse the organizational
apparatus of the Church.

On June 15 the use of force and
terror commenced with a police raid
on Archbishop Beran’s palace. Four
days later the Archbishop’s service
was interrupted by a demonstration,
and he was confined in his palace un-
der guard. The Communists confis-

— 54 —



cated his records and sent out notices
bearing his official seal. The Vatican
announced excommunication on all
who participated in anti-Church ac-
tivities.

When genuine pastoral letters con-
tinued to circulate, the regime for-
bade the clergy to meet without gov-
ernment permission, declared that all
pastoral letters and other communica-
tions must be censored by the State,
and arrogantly invalidated all Church
punishments. Over 300 clergymen
were imprisoned for violating these
rules before the end of the summer.

In 1950 a State Office for Church
Affairs was created. By 1952 this
Office had performed its tasks so
well against the Catholic Church that
it was able to shift major responsi-
bility back to the Central Action
Committee, to the schismatic “Cath-
olic Action,” and to a newly formed
Society for the Propagation of Polit-
ical and Scientific Knowledge.

During the two years of its opera-
tion the Office had accomplished, a-
mong other things, the expulsion of
the last remaining papal represent-

55 —



ative
;

appointment of political in-
structors in the seminaries; trans-

fers of priests to new dioceses

;

State censorship of all communica-
tions with the Vatican; confiscation
of monasteries; imprisonment or de-
portation of religious leaders

;
ap-

pointment of Communist collabo-
rators in place of the imprisoned or

dead clergymen ; non-filling of vacant
positions

;
imprisonment of all clergy-

men who refused to sign the oath
of allegiance or made “illegal” ap-
pointments or who would not fill
their sermons with praises of the re-
gime and the new way of life.

A series of sensational trials over
the oath of allegiance led to a sen-
tence of 24 years of imprisonment
for Bishop Jan Vojtassak, life im-
prisonment for Bishop Michael Bu-
zalka, and the banishment of Arch-
bishop Beran. Bishop Tomasek was
arrested; Bishop Joseph Hlouch was
“removed” from office, and a Com-
munist successor appointed in his

place
;
Bishop Skrabik died in a labor

camp. Three more bishops were for-
cibly removed from their offices

— 56 —



in 1953 while a fourth, Bishop Skou-

py, was arrested for daring to defy
the Red ban against organizing Mar-
ian Year celebrations.

By 1950 about 10 percent of the
Catholic population of Slovakia had
been imprisoned.

The Central Action Committee is
working at present toward the crea-
tion of a “State” or “National Cath-
olic Church” in Czechoslovakia. The
regime openly admits that the Church,
which it calls “religious superstition,”
is its chief adversary.

Let us pray for the Church of Si-
lence in Czechoslovakia that it may
be encouraged to imitate the exam-
ples of its glorious Martyrs and Con-
fessors to serve God faithfully de-
spite the blows that are daily di-
rected its way.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 57 —



THE SILENT EAST

“Grant us, Lord, to be the door=
step by which the multitudes may
come to worship Thee.”

—Bishop Ford

Three hundred million Chinese are
within the Iron Curtain. The hammer
and sickle is over Northern Korea.
Indo-China’s fate is not decided; the

Communists have control over certain
sections. The Iron Curtain is ever en-
closing more and more territory and
peoples.

And wherever atheistic Commu-
nism makes its appearance, there en-
sues a ruthless, inhuman persecution
of all religion. Such persecutions pro-
duce Martyrs and Confessors.

Many are the stories that have
come our way from the Catholic mis-
sion fields overrun by the Reds. They
are stories of utmost cruelty and
merciless hate. But they are also
stories of glorious martyrdom, of he-
roic virtue and selfless sacrifice on
the altar of brotherly love.

— 58 —



Consider the story of the Little

Brothers of St. John the Baptist,
a religious community founded by
Father Lebbe. These Brothers were
Chinese. They worked among the
poor. The Communists, who claim
that they also are for the poor people,

“rewarded” the Brothers for their
labor among the poor. The Brothers
were either buried alive or dragged
to death behind wild horses.

Consider the American-born Bishop
Byrne, Apostolic Delegate to Korea,

who had earned the respect of the
Japanese people, the Korean populace,
and of the American armed forces.
His life had been one of dedicated de-
votion to the poor people whom he
had served. So the Communists had
declared him Public Enemy Number
One. He was taken prisoner, beaten,
exposed, and maltreated until he died
in prison.

Another gallant American Mary-
knoll missioner, Bishop Francis Ford,
suffered a similar fate. And Bishop
Boniface Sauer, Apostolic Adminis-
trator of Kanka in Northern Korea,
also died in a Communist prison. And

— 59 —



Father Bede Tsang: his death was
considered a true martyrdom for the
Faith by the Shanghai Catholics to
such an extent that they clamored
for a Mass of rejoicing in place
of the usual Requiem.

These are not isolated cases. For
when Bishop Sauer was imprisoned,
he was sent to prison with 122
priests, Brothers and Sisters. With
Bishop Byrne were others, among
them his secretary, Father Booth,
Monsignor Quinlan and the Anglican
Bishop Cooper. These three helped
others to bury Bishop Byrne.

There is no line of distinction drawn
by the Reds whether the mission-
aries are native or foreign, male or
female, old or young. They must be
prevented from preaching the word
of God.

The story is the same everywhere:
in China, in Northern Korea, in Indo-
China. Thousands have been impris-
oned, expelled, and murdered.

In 1953 the Communists have re-
moved two archbishops, 16 bishops
and six monsignors who served as
heads of Sees. An additional 400

— 60 —



priests and Brothers and Sisters were
ousted.

The stories of the tortures to which
they had been submitted in an effort
to force them “to confess” to non-
existent crimes are tales of horror.

They told of being beaten, stripped,
lifted by their hair, hung by their
thumbs, forced to stand for hours
without moving. They told of the hun-
ger and exhaustion and filth; of cold
and disease and the brink of insanity.

They also narrated the stories of
those of their fellow-missionaries who
died under the maltreatment or of
exposure or were driven to insanity.

It is understandable then to read
of instances like that of Father John
Tung in Chungking who concluded
his public protest against Communist
efforts to draw Catholics away from
obedience to the Vatican with these
words : “I make these statements now
being of a sane mind and I avow
that whatever I may say later in a
state of confusion will be entirely in-

valid.” He was arrested on the follow-
ing day.

Such a statement shows that the

— 61 —



missionaries know that they may be
tortured beyond human endurance.
The marvelous and heroic feature is
this that despite this knowledge they
continue to work among the faithful.
This is indeed an age of heroic sacri-
fice in the annals of the Church.

Let us pray for the Church of Si-
lence in the Far East that its faith-
ful, though they may lose pastors,
may be confirmed in their Faith by
the noble examples of courage and
steadfastness of these same pastors.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 62 —



MARTYRDOM IN HUNGARY

“I shall neither confess nor re=
sign. If I should, that could only

be the result of torture beyond
human endurance, and consequent=
ly should be regarded as* null and
void.”

—Card. Mindszenty, Dee. 27, 1948

About seventy percent of Hungary
is Roman Catholic. Because of this
size and the deep-rooted historical
tradition of the Church in Hungary,
the Communists left the Church un-
molested until after the 1947 elections,

during which they had consolidated
their political strength.

After the 1945 elections, however,
they had struck their first blow
through the Ministry of Interior,
which they controlled, in the form of
an agrarian reform which confiscated
a sizeable portion of Church revenue.

At a meeting of the National Con-
gress of the Communist Party in Jan-
uary of 1948 the Party goal was
stated: “The task of our party this
year is to settle the relationship be-

— 63 —



tween the Church and the Republic.
It cannot be tolerated that the major-
ity of the enemies of the people
should hide in the shadows of Church-
es, especially the Catholic Church.”

General dissatisfaction with the
new regime and moral resistance to
it had crystallized around the coura-
geous Primate Joseph Cardinal Mind-
szenty. Because of his previous ex-
periences with the Bolsheviks and
Nazis the Cardinal was a universal
symbol of resistance.

Previous attemps of the regime to
destroy religious training in the

schools had failed. On March 19th,
1948, the Communists proposed a four
point program which aimed at elim-
inating religious influence in educa-

tion. Since more than fifty percent
of all schools were Catholic, Cardinal

Mindszenty led the fight against the

nationalization of the schools. The
Communists thereupon resorted to
terror and force in order to urge the

adoption of their program. In June

the Hungarian Parliament endorsed

the four point program. The Church

64 —



lost thousands of schools of various
types to the State.

The Communists next launched a
drive for the collectivization of farms.
They were aware that the Cardinal
would again stand between them and
their goals. He became their chief
target. They concentrated all their
efforts in the press, over the radio,

and in mass demonstrations against
the Primate. They dared not as yet
attack the Church openly.

On December 26, 1948, the Cardi-
nal was arrested and indicted for
treason, espionage and illegal cur-
rency exchange. On the following day
each bishop had received the Cardi-
nal’s last message to the effect that
he would neither confess nor resign.
Eventually, under the effect of the
drug actedron, the Cardinal, broken
in body, “confessed” at a mock trial
on all counts. He was sentenced to
death; but, under pressure from all
sides, the regime commuted the sen-
tence to life imprisonment.

The persecution reached new
heights in 1948. Religious processions
and pilgrimages were banned; reli-

— 65 —



gious associations were suppressed;
almost all Catholic periodicals were
banned, and the rest subject to strict
censorship; bishops were not permit-
ted to visit the Pope, and Vatican
delegations were not permitted entry
into the country

; religious feasts

and festivals were proscribed ; the
traditional procession on St. Steph-
en’s Day, one of the great traditional
feasts of Hungary, was proscribed,
and the day was renamed the Feast
of Bread (from 1950 it became the
Bolshevist Constitution Day)

;
road-

side chapels and crucifixes were elim-
inated ; churches and shrines were
turned over for other uses; youth
organizations were disbanded

;
all

Catholic charity organizations such

as hospitals, orphanages and old age
homes were liquidated; religious pub-
lishing houses and bookstores were

either brought under strict govern-

ment control or were liquidated ; even
church libraries and valuable art

treasures were confiscated; various

other oppressive measures were in-

voked.

But these blows were not the end.

— 66 —



In 1949 a State Office for Church
Affairs was set up. It became the
chief weapon of oppression. It con-
trolled all Church incomes ; almost all
properties of the Church were con-
fiscated.

The Office attempted to split the
clergy into opposing sects, but it
failed to achieve this end.

The Office commandeered episcopal
seals and issued edicts in the names
of the bishops, without their consent.
It filled vacancies in episcopal or oth-

er important posts, occasioned by
execution, imprisonment, banishment
or resignation, with so-called “peace”
priests.

In August of 1950 the Catholic
Bishops were coerced to sign a Church-
State agreement. The Vatican refused
rightly to recognize this signature

as legal, whereupon the State insisted
that the clergy and hierarchy take
oaths of loyalty to the State. This too
eventually was carried out.

Pressures continued to be exerted
on the clergy and the faithful. By
July of 1951 the regime felt strong
enough to decree that in the future

— 67 —



all members of the episcopate could
be appointed only after the Presidium
had approved them. This was a great
extension of the State’s power over
the Church.

In 1951 another big anticlerical
trial was staged by the Communists
on a pattern of the Mindszenty trial.
This time the accused was Archbish-
op of Kalocsa, Jozef Groesz, who had
succeeded Cardinal Mindszenty as
head of the Board of Bishops. Arch-
bishop Groesz also “confessed” and
was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The roll of Martyrs and Confessors
daily becomes longer. The most zeal-
ous and firm among the hierarchy,
the priests and the faithful are made
to pay the penalty. At least one more
bishop — Bishop Joseph Petery of
Vacz — was arrested and removed
in 1953.

Let us pray that the Church of Si-
lence in Hungary may ever find such
courageous and intrepid defenders of
Christ’s Church as was its Cardinal
Mindszenty.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 68



CATHOLIC POLAND
IN CHAINS

“We are not allowed to place the
things belonging to God on the
altar of Caesar.”—Polish Bishops,

Pastoral Letter, 1953

In considering the persecution of

the Catholic Church in Poland one
must remember not only that the
Polish population is almost exclusive-
ly Catholic and that religion is deeply
rooted in the culture and history of
the people but also that Poland had
been partly overrun by the Commu-
nists as early as 1939.

It has been estimated that, during
the first Soviet occupation of the

eastern part of Poland between 1939
and 1941, about one million of the
population was deported to Russia.
Hundreds of priests were deported
to labor camps in Siberia. Only seven-
ty survived. Some could not even be
traced.

During the second occupation of
the eastern provinces in 1945, the

— 69 —



Communists were ready with a plan.
The Church was immediately liqui-
dated in a most ruthless manner. The
Greek-Catholic Church was merged
with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The hierarchy of the Greek Church
was imprisoned and sent to Russia;
the faithful were “converted” to the
Russian Church.

Simultaneously the bishops of the
Latin rite were expelled from their
dioceses and sent to central and
western Poland.

In what is now called Poland, the
Communist puppet regime did not
dare risk an open attack directly on
the Church. The Church and clergy
had been in the forefront of the
nation’s struggle against the Nazi
oppressors and had thereby merited
the highest esteem of the populace.

Thus the first stage of the Com-
munist persecution of the Church in
Poland, from 1945 to 1948, can be
termed a period of relative quiet. It is
true that the regime revoked the Con-
cordat on September 2, 1945; that
attacks against the clergy appeared
in the press; that the Church’s wel-

— 70 —



fare organization, Caritas, was also
assailed; that more active or fearless
clergymen suddenly disappeared —
more than a 100 cases of such kid-
napping and disappearance of priests
and religious occurred

;
that some

1,000 “undesirable” clergymen were
imprisoned

;
that acts of terrorism

were not unknown. However, all such
instances were “unofficial.” As yetthe
regime had not opened a frontal at-
tack on the Church. On the contrary,
it tried to woo the Church by peaceful
methods to become a tool of the State.

By 1949 the regime saw clearly
that its political power had been suf-
ficiently stabilized and that the
Church would not be wooed to become
a stooge of the State. Then opened
the second stage of a violent attack
on the Church. The following chro-
nology gives some idea of how rapid-
ly the persecution mounted:

On Aug. 5, 1949, the government
published a decree safeguarding free-
dom of religion and conscience.
On Aug. 11, the government re-

quisitioned all birth records from
parish churches.

— 71 —



On Aug. 18, an intensive anti-
Vatican campaign began in the press.
On Sept. 21, the Church hospitals

were nationalized under the Ministry
of Health.

On Nov. 23, the Minister of Public
Administration imposed serious limi-
tations on public worship.
On Jan. 23, 1950, the charitable

organization Caritas was suddenly
confiscated by the government.

On March 20, extensive Church
properties were confiscated.

In the meantime, from August of
1949, vilification of the clergy in-

creased in the press. All manner of
charges were brought against the
priests, religious and the hierarchy.

Trojan-horse tactics in the forms
of “patriot priest” associations and
a “National Catholic Church” failed
to bring about the desired schism.

An agreement between the Polish
Bishops and the State Department
of Religious Affairs was entered upon
in April of 1950. The Communists
soon violated every pledge. In fact

they used the agreement as a new
weapon against the Church. Under

— 72 —



the pretext that the agreement had
been violated by certain acts, they
would remove priests and bishops and
substitute in their stead the so-called

“patriotic priests.”

By 1953 the Catholic press and pub-
lications had been suppressed; Cath-
olic societies liquidated ; Church prop-
erties confiscated

;
religion eliminated

from the educational system; mon-
asteries and convents suppressed.
The number of priests and religious
in prison increased.

At the end of 1952 a new wave of
persecution was launched with the
objective of disrupting the organiza-

tion of the Church. The Bishop of
Katowice and his two auxiliary bish-
ops were arrested and removed; the
Bishop of Cracow and his auxiliary
met the same fate.

In February of 1953 there appeared
a new decree which gave the State
the right to supervise clerical ap-

pointments. This decree virtually
gave the State supreme power over
the Church for it gave the regime the
power to approve in advance all
Church appointments, promotions,

— 73 —



and transfers; the creation, abolition
or transformation of Church posts
and functions also had to be approved;
a loyalty oath was demanded from all
members of the hierarchy.

Needless to say the Polish Bishops
protested the decree. More bishops
thereupon were removed, including
Cardinal Wyszynski, Primate of Po-
land.

On the evening of September 25,
Communist police agents invaded
the Cardinal’s home and, after several
hours of thorough search, left, taking
the Cardinal with them. He has not
been seen or heard from since.

The Polish Bishops protested the
action. The regime has struck again
at the hierarchy by arresting Bishop
Anthony Baraniak, auxiliary of Car-
dinal Wyszynski in Gniezno and for-
mer secretary to the late Cardinal
Hlond.

There is no doubt that these blows
will be followed by others. The sin-
gular position which the Catholic
Church occupies in Poland and in the
lives of the population makes it with-
out doubt the strongest foe of the

— 74 —



Communist regime. In order to de-
stroy the Church the regime will have
to continue and intensify its persecu-
tion to a fever pitch.

Let us pray for the Church of Si-
lence in Poland that it may remain
always faithful

;
that, as it has

weathered past persecutions only to
emerge more glorious and pure, it
may again take its rightful role in
the life of the nation.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 75



RED TERROR IN YUGOSLAVIA

“But among all the trials which
press upon us, we are most parti=
cularly concerned about the fate
of the beloved of God, the innocent
children.”

—Cardinal Stepinac

Because of its numerical minority
position and because the Communist
regime headed by Tito was entrench-
ed in Yugoslavia earlier than similar
puppet regimes in other satellite
countries, the Church in Yugoslavia
(one-third of the people) suffered

tremendous losses earlier than in
nearby Soviet-dominated countries.

By October of 1946, Archbishop
(now Cardinal) Stepinac, head of the
Catholic Church in Yugoslavia, was
sentenced at a mock trial. The Arch-
bishop had been a central figure in
the resistance movement. In his Pas-
toral Letter published a few days be-
fore his arrest, he pictures the havoc
created by the Red persecutors

:

‘The fact that so many parishes
are now deprived of pastors . . . Some

— 76 —



priests now for a long time have been
detained in camps and in prisons.”

“We are not free to publish Cath-
olic papers.”

“The Church has been so seriously-
restricted in the right of private

ownership.”

“Ecclesiastical institutions have
been deprived of the opportunity of
helping the poor and the aged, and
that so many religious women . . . are
no longer able to exercise their voca-
tions . . . We ourselves, for the same
reasons, are no longer able to assist
the poor who now as before knock at
our gates.”

“It is held against priests that they
preach about God, about eternity, a-
bout the Pope, and about other
truths.”

“Likewise unjust and unfounded
is the accusation which is hurled a-
gainst priests that they do not love
their own land and their own nation.”
“But among all the trials which

press upon us, we are most particular-
ly concerned about the fate of the be-
loved of God, the innocent children.
And so we feel obliged to address to



you some words of advice on Chris-
tian education of youth.”

Quoting freely from the Encyclical
of Pius XI, the future Cardinal said:

“If the child belongs to the father

and mother . . . then it must be that
to them belongs first place in his
education . . . The place where the
child’s education begins is, therefore,

in the family ... You have received
the child from God. You must educate
him for God.”
“The teaching function of the

Church blends happily in perfect con-
cord with the teaching function of
the family, so that we may in truth
repeat the words of Pius XI: ‘The
Church and the family constitute
a single asylum and, as it were, a sin-
gle sanctuary of Christian educa-
tion.’

”

“The function of the school has
been aptly described by Pius XI in
these words : ‘The need for the public
school arises from the fact that the
newborn generation must be instruct-
ed in all those acts and disciplines
by reason of which civil society pros-
pers and grows, and the family alone
is not equal to this task.’

”

78 —



“How did schools come into being?
Pius XI answers that question: ‘The
public school came into being original-
ly, and mark this well, in order to en-
able the Church and family to work
together, and it was much later that
the state became associated in this
partnership. For that reason, schools
by their very nature, if we consider
them in point of view of their his-
torical origin, exist as an aid and com-
plement to the Church and family.’ ”

“What follows from this? Pius XI
again points out: ‘The consequence
is that the public school must not on-
ly not conflict with family and Church,
but must, as is evident, cooperate with
each in such a way that the three —
school, family, and Church — seem
to constitute one single sanctuary of
Christian teaching.’

”

“From these words of Pius XI it is
clear that a Christian spirit ought to
reign in the school, and that it is not
enough that the school set aside one
or another period for religion. Be-

yond that, it is necessary that every
instruction and the whole curriculum
be pervaded by a Christian spirit, so

— 79 —



that faith may truly be said to be the
foundation and crown of the entire
education.”

“You yourselves know how far
from the ideal set forth by Pius XI
are our schools today. Consider these
facts which prove it:

“In our schools prayer before and
after lessons has been abolished.

“From our schools has been re-
moved the sign of our Redemption,
the Cross of Christ.

“The collective students’ Mass on
Sunday and holydays has been abol-
ished.

“Reception of the sacraments of
penance and Communion by student
groups has been discontinued.

“Lenten retreats in preparation for
the Pashcal Communion have likewise
been discontinued.

“Meanwhile, in some of our schools
religion lessons are tolerated. But
there are whole regions in which no
religious lessons are given, and that
not only in the intermediary schools
but in the elementary schools as well.
And, when religion is taught, it is put
in the last place in the curriculum,

— 80 —



and a wholly unsatisfactory hour is
given over to its teaching.

“Obstacles are even put in the
way of priests who, because of these
reasons, felt it their duty to gather
together the children in the churches

for religious instruction — as though
it were not licit to teach religion any-
where else than in the school build-
ings.

“By reason of these facts we de-
mand, as we have a right to expect,
that liberty of conscience be respect-

ed in a practical way, even in child-
ren when they, together with their
parents, choose to assist at lessons

in religion, whether they be given
in school or in church.”

And further in the Letter:
“If on the one hand, it is permitted

to diffuse materialism and atheism,
let us be given complete liberty in the
preaching of those truths which have
come from God and which lead us
to God.

“For we educate our children, not
only to be citizens of heaven, but to
be perfect citizens of the temporal
society. It will be the best foundation
for social and economic order in our

— 81 —



nation if youth is conscious that it
must conduct itself in accord with the
Commandments. So the state, if it
assists us in Christian education, will

be rendering itself a service.”

The terrorizing of the Church has
not ceased in Yugoslavia. In 1953
various members of the hierarchy
were seized and beaten on several oc-
casions. The government is sponsor-
ing a “priests’ association.” In an ef-
fort to disrupt the organization of the

Church, the regime is drafting bish-
ops and priests into the army. The
government has prepared a so-called
“documentary” film, entitled “Cardi-
nal Criminal,” disparaging the Head
of the Catholic Church. Religious
education has been prohibited com-
pletely, and the Church has been de-
prived of all its schools.

As the Red terror continues against
the Church of Silence in Yugoslavia,
let us pray that its members will con-
tinue to profess staunchly the teach-

ing of the Church after the example
of its intrepid leader, Cardinal
Stepinac.

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

82 —



A CALL TO INTERCESSION AND
PRAYER

(The following statement was issued
by the American Archbishops and Bishops
at their annual meeting in November
of 1952.)

The Bishops of the United States
of America bow their heads in re-
verent homage to the multitude of
contemporary martyrs and confessors
who in these latter days have suffer-
ed for their Faith in Jesus Christ.

Their name is legion. They are
citizens of many lands. Never before
in history have so many men and
women fallen victim to religious per-
secution.

The modern bede-roll of Christian
heroes enshrines the names of two
cardinals, 130 bishops, tens of thou-

sands of priests and religious and mil-
lions of faithful Catholics. (These
figures were used in November, 1952.)
The list lengthens with each passing
day.

Indignity, prison, torture, death —
this is the lot of those who profess

— 83 —



the faith of Jesus Christ in countries
conquered by the hosts of atheistic
materialism.

To the Holy Father, Whose heart
grieves sorely for his afflicted child-

ren, we send the assurance of our filial
sympathy and affectionate solidarity.

To the prelates and priests and to
our fellow Catholics of the Church of
Silence, we pledge the continuing aid
of our prayers and the encouragement
of every help which lies within our
power.

And to our Catholic priests and
people in this free land of America,
we issue a call to intercession and
prayer that God in His loving Provi-
dence may shorten these days of trial
and restore peace and tranquility to
the Church and to the world.

It is our prayer that the lesson of

our contemporary Martyrs and Con-
fessors be not lost in a distraught

world. If Catholic bishops, priests and
laymen are the first on the enemies’
lists of proscription, is it not because

our Holy Church, today as always,
stands as a bulwark against those
who would destroy religion and the

— 84 —



practice of justice and charity among
men?

Is it not because the Church is the
most powerful defender, against the
new barbarism, of all the gains of
2,000 years of Christian civilization?

Is it not because the Church, faith-
ful to its divine commission, is the
uncompromising custodian of the
Truth, which saves and sets men
free?

These are sad but glorious days for
the Church of Jesus Christ. Of old,
the Prince of Apostles was crucified
on Vatican Hill, and the Prince of
Missionaries was beheaded outside
the walls of Rome. It is significant
that the chroniclers of that day failed
to record events which have since
been treasured by the centuries.

The blood of those early martyrs
was the seed of the Church and the
eloquent witness throughout the
world to that Faith which was to
shape our era and to give it its
Christian name.

The Confessors and Martyrs of to-
day are part of our Christian heritage.
Let us write their deeds upon our

— 85 —



hearts as a sequel to the epic story
of St. Peter and St. Paul, of the early
Christians, and of the myriads in
every age who were deemed worthy
to suffer for the Faith of Christ.

Let us tell this story to our people
and to our children for their inspira-
tion and for their emulation.

God grant that the glorious death
of our Martyrs may be the source of
new life to millions of their fellow men
in every land, and may their example
hasten the return of the modern world
to Christ.

From the lips of these contempo-
rary witnesses to Christ, let us catch

and re-echo those words of life which
for twenty centuries have been the
rallying cry of Christian civilization:

“Long live Christ the King. ,,

(Turn to p. 87 for SUPPLICATIONS)

— 86 —



SUPPLICATIONS
FOR THE CHURCH OF SILENCE

Priest: In the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost.

People: Amen.

Priest and People:

We adore Thee, most holy Lord
Jesus Christ, * here and in all Thy
churches that are in the whole world,
* and we bless Thee

;
* because by Thy

holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the
world.

— 87



Priest: 0 God, come unto my assist-
ance:

People: 0 Lord, make haste to help
me.

Priest and People:

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, * behold us in Thy divine
presence. * We have gathered here
today * to supplicate mercy and
strength for Thy Church of Silence, *

which suffers a horrible persecution
at the hands of impious men, * and
to make reparation for all the blas-
phemies * which these impious men,
our brothers, * hurl against Thee and
Thine. * Hear our prayers, O God of
mercy, * and look not upon our in-
iquities * but upon the merits of Jesus
Christ, our Saviour. * Amen.

Priest: Let us pray for our Holy Fa-
ther Pius XII * whose heart is sore-
ly grieved by the sufferings of the
Church of Silence.

People : The Lord preserve him, * and
give him life, * and make him to be
blessed upon the earth, * and de-

88 —



liver him not up to the will of his
enemies.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Priest: Lord Jesus, shelter our Holy
Father the Pope under the protec-
tion of Thy Sacred Heart.

People: Be Thou his light, his
strength and his consolation.

Priest: Let us pray for the whole
hierarchy of the Church of Silence.

People: Almighty and everlasting
God, * by whose spirit the whole
body of the Church is sanctified
and governed, * hear our prayers
for all Orders, * that, by the gift
of Thy grace, * all their different
degrees may faithfully serve Thee.

Priest: Let us pray for the clergy of
the Church of Silence.

People: 0 God, who hast appointed
Thine only begotten Son * to be the
eternal High Priest * for the glory
of Thy Majesty and the salvation
of mankind

;
* grant that they

— 89 —



whom He hath chosen * to be His
ministers and the stewards of His
mysteries, * may be found faithful
in the fulfilment of the ministry *

which they have received. * Through
the same Christ our Lord. * Amen.

Priest: Jesus, Saviour of the world,

People: Sanctify Thy priests and
sacred ministers.

Priest: Let us pray for all the im-
prisoned members of the Church
of Silence.

People: 0 God, who didst deliver
from his chains the blessed apostle
Peter * and didst restore him to
liberty, * loose the bonds of Thy
servants now in captivity, * and
through the merits of that same
apostle * grant them to escape un-
harmed.

Priest: Let us pray for all those
members of the Church of Silence
wbo are in temptation and in tribu-
lation.

People: 0 God, who dost justify the
wicked, * and desirest not the death

90 —



of the sinner, * we humbly beseech
Thy majesty * that Thou wouldst
graciously shield by Thy heavenly
aid, * and preserve by Thine unre-
mitting protection * Thy servants
who trust in Thy mercy, * that
they may serve Thee always * and
by no temptations ever be sepa-
rated from Thee.

Priest: Let us pray for the children
and youth of the Church of Silence.

People: 0 God, who in Thy son suf-
fered the little children to come un-
to Thee, * grant the children and
youth * deprived of religious in-

struction in the Church of Silence *

the grace to learn by the example
of their faithful leaders * to remain
true to Thy Church.

Priest: Let us pray for patience for
ourselves and for those suffering
persecution in the Church of Si-
lence.

People: 0 God, who by the patience
of Thine only-begotten Son * hast
crushed the pride of the enemy of

— 91 —



old, * grant us and those suffering
persecution, we beseech Thee, *

devoutly to keep in mind all that
He endured for love of us, * and
thus following His example * bear
our troubles with equanimity.

Priest: Let us pray for the welfare
of the living in the Church of Si-
lence.

People: Grant unto Thy faithful peo-
ple, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, *
constancy in Thy faith and truth, *

that confirmed in divine charity, *

they may preserve its integrity
in spite of all temptations.

Priest: Let us pray for the faithful
departed of the Church of Silence.

People: O God, the Creator and Re-
deemer of all the faithful, * grant
to the souls of Thy servants and
handmaids * the remission of all
their sins ; * that by our pious sup-
plications * they may obtain the
pardon which they have always
desired.

Priest: Let us pray that the Church

— 92 —



of Silence be delivered from the
hands of her persecutors.

People: We beseech Thee, 0 Lord, *
mercifully to receive the prayers

of Thy Church : * that all adversity
and error being destroyed, * she
may serve Thee in security and
freedom.

Priest: Let us pray for the enemies
of the Church of Silence.

People: 0 God, the lover and guard-
ian of peace and charity, * grant
unto all enemies peace and charity,
* together with remission of all
their sins, * and by Thy power
deliver us from their wiles.

Priest: Let us pray for peace for the
entire Church.

People: 0 God, who art the Author
and Lover of peace, * in knowledge
of whom is eternal life, * whose
service is a kingly state; * defend
us Thy humble servants from all
assaults of our enemies ; * that we,
surely trusting in Thy defense, *

may not fear the power of any

— 93 —



adversaries. * Through Christ our
Lord. * Amen.

Priest: Let us make reparation to
the Son of God.

ACT OF REPARATION

Priest and People:

0 Jesus, my Saviour and Redeem-
er, Son of the living God, * behold we
kneel before Thee and offer Thee our
reparation ; * we would make amends
for all the blasphemies uttered
against Thy holy Name,* for all the
injuries done to Thee in the Blessed
Sacrament, * for all the irreverence
shown toward Thine Immaculate
Virgin Mother, * for all the calumnies
and slanders spoken against Thy
spouse, * the holy Catholic and Ro-
man Church. * O Jesus, who hast
said:

* “If you ask the Father any-
thing in My name, He will give it to
you,” * we pray and beseech Thee for
all our brethren * who are in danger
of sin

;
* shield them from every

temptation to fall away from the true

— 94 —



faith
;

* save those who are even now
standing on the brink of the abyss

;

*

to all of them give light and know-
ledge of the truth, * courage and
strength for the conflict with evil, *

perseverance in faith and active
charity! * For this do we pray, most
merciful Jesus, in Thy Name, * unto
God the Father, with whom Thou
livest and reignest * in the unity of
the Holy Ghost world without end. *

Amen.

Priest: Let us seek the intercession
of Our Lady, Help of Christians, *

for the Church of Silence.

PRAYER TO OUR LADY,
HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Priest and People:

Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God
and our Mother, Mary, * thou seest
the attacks that are everywhere made
* by the devil and the world upon the
Catholic faith, * in which, by God’s
grace, we intend to live and die, * in
order that we may attain to eternal

— 95 —



glory. * Do thou, the Help of Chris-
tians, * renew thine ancient victories
and save thy children. * They entrust
to thee their firm purpose * never
to enroll themselves in societies hos-
tile to our holy religion; * do thou,
who art all holy, * present to thy
divine Son * our good resolutions and
obtain for us the grace we need * to
be unshaken in their observance even
to the end of life. * Console the visible
Head of the Church, * sustain the
Catholic episcopate, * protect the

clergy who proclaim thee Queen; *

by the power of thine intercession
hasten the day * when all nations
shall be gathered * at the feet of the
chief Shepherd. * Amen.

Priest: Mary, Help of Christians,

People: Pray for us!

(If any other prayers are to be added,
they are said here.) Then follow:

An appropriate HYMN,

BENEDICTION OF THE BL. SACRA-
MENT,

An appropriate closing HYMN.

96 —



Let us all cherish in our hearts the epic

story of our own Martyrs and Confessors.

Let us tell this story to our children that

they may learn the names of Stepinac and

Mindszenty and Wyszynski, of Beran,

of Cule, of Ford and of Byrne, along with

the heroes of the Faith in ages past; that

they may understand HOW GREAT IT IS
TO BE A CATHOLIC.

—Bishops’ Statement. 1953



7 SSSVS

“Let there then be

supplication to God

and penance

that His grace be poured out

in superabundant measure

to strengthen those

who hold the place

of honor and of danger

in the new warfare

launched against the Church.”

—Bishops’ Statement, 1953