If we accept the social and political implications of this ceremony, then no Catholic can ever again support war. Now he belongs to the world.įranz he is still a force of controversy throughout Austria, but he is the closest saint in recent centuries to resemble those daring, early Christians. She knows now that Franz no longer belongs to Austria. At one point, 94 year-old Franziska presented a gold box of his relics, kissed them, gave them for the altar, then wept.
Franz jaggerstater tv#
The two hour Mass on Friday morning was broadcast live on national TV in Austria and Germany. gathered for a meal and reflections on Franz's life. On the night before the celebration, nearly a hundred Pax Christi members from Austria, England and the U.S. Radegund to pray at Franz' grave and visit his widow Franziska and the Jagerstatter family. In 1985, I read Gordon Zahn's ground-breaking biography, "In Solitary Witness," while living in a refugee camp in El Salvador. "Then your life will have its true meaning." I've been trying to take his good advice. "Consider two things: from where, to where," Franz wrote his godson from prison, just a few weeks before his execution. His witness encouraged me to become a Jesuit and an advocate for peace, justice and nonviolence. I was stunned by this story of a young father, husband, and farmer, born on May 20, 1907, who was called into active service by the Nazis in February, 1943, politely refused, was imprisoned in Linz, condemned to death for "undermining military morale," and beheaded on August 9, 1943. My grandmother gave me a booklet about Franz when I was a student at Duke University in the late 1970s, trying to decide what to do with my life. The witness of Franz Jagerstatter has been with me nearly all my life. The political implications of this event for Catholics around the world are staggering, and very exciting.
The church was declaring publicly that nearly all Catholics of Austria and Germany, including Joseph Ratzinger, now the Pope, were wrong, that this uneducated farmer was right, and that we are all called to live and practice the radical nonviolence of the peacemaking Jesus.
This event, ignored by religious and mainstream media in the U.S., was for me, one of the most political and best events in the institutional Church in recent decades, and a real sign of hope. Anti-war hero Franz Jagerstatter was beatified, (that is, officially recognized as "blessed" by God), in the Cathedral in Linz, Austria. Two weeks ago, on October 26, 2007, an astonishing event happened in the Catholic Church.
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