A German archdiocese said Monday that it is preparing to open the beatification cause of a member of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance group.
A spokeswoman told CNA Deutsch, Catholic News Agency’s German-language news partner, Oct. 12 that the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising was “in the middle of the preparation process for a beatification procedure” for Wili Graf, who was executed in 1943.
Graf oversaw recruitment to the White Rose movement, a non-violent group led by students including Hans and Sophie Scholl and inspired by St. John Henry Newman’s writings on conscience.
[See Ignatius Press book, A Noble Treason. about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement.]
Graf, a medical student, was arrested and sentenced to death on April 19, 1943. For the next six months, the Gestapo interrogated him, but he refused to disclose details about the resistance movement. He was executed — probably by guillotine — on October 12, 1943, at the Stadelheim Prison in Munich.
The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising confirmed its preparations to advance his cause on the anniversary of his death. The archdiocese opened a preliminary investigation in 2017. For the past three years, theologians and historians have investigated Graf’s life and writings. When this stage is completed, the next step will be the opening of the beatification cause.
The archdiocese has completed preliminary investigations related to two other Catholics targeted under the Third Reich. On December 16, 2017, it launched the beatification process for Fritz Gerlich, a journalist who publicly denounced Hitler, and Romano Guardini, one of the leading theologians of the 20th century who was forced to resign an academic post because of his criticism of the Nazis.
On the day of his execution, the 25-year-old Graf wrote a letter to his parents.
It said: “On this day I’m leaving this life and entering eternity. What hurts me most of all is that I am causing such pain to those of you who go on living. But strength and comfort you’ll find with God and that is what I am praying for till the last moment.”
The above comes from an Oct. 13 story with Catholic news Agency.
Why the question mark in the headline?
More importantly, are there those of other faiths who resisted the Nazis and suffered for it? I believe God’s grace shines upon them..
mike m,
The German resistance movement was comprised of both devout Catholics and Protestants. Members of both faiths were tortured and executed by the Gestapo.
Mike, beginning to consider a person for beatification is only the start of a long process. That’s why it is a question whether or not Wili Graf will be beatified.
And, of course, those of other faiths resisted the Nazis and suffered for it. To name only one, Protestant pastor (and martyr?) Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
And, of course, God is gracious to all. Yet, we don’t “impose” our Catholic understanding of sanctification and public acts like beatification and canonization on those of other faiths who don’t believe in such. We respect them and don’t try to “make them Catholic Saints” after their deaths. (I don’t think many of the non-Catholic descendents of those who died under Nazi persecution would want us declaring their ancestors Catholic Saints.) For those we may see in heaven, at that “time,” for all of us, this will be a moot point.