Jesus Christ is the Meaning of the Human Person
From Kenneth L. Woodward’s book, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church
Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1996) 144-147: Fr. Gumpel: “The question was whether Kolbe had died
as a martyr for the faith. I personally never said he was not a martyr. What I
did say was we have no absolute certain proof that he was a martyr in the
classical sense, and in these cases you have to be absolutely cert ain. For
instance, some people said that since he was picked yp by the Nazis and put in
Auschwitz that this was the equivalent of a death sentence. But Auschwitz
became a death camp only much later and, as a matter of fact, a number of the
inmates survived.
‘In addition, we
had to look at the circumstances of his arrest. It was a part of a big
operation, a large sweep. The Nazis were preparing to invade Russia, and as part of that operation
they had a to make sure from a logistical point of view, that the lines of
supply were safe for the transport of ammunition, foodstuffs, fuel, spare parts
for tanks, and the like. So to assure the safety of all this, they arrested all
the intellectuals who could possibly cause them trouble: atheists, Communists,
Catholics. So Kolbe was not arrested for reasons of his faith.’
The Nazis wsere
known for their hatred of priests. The question
arose, therefore, whether it was possible that Kommandant Fritsch wanted
Kolbe killed because he was a priest. Gumpel responded, sensibly enough, that
if that were the case, Fritsch would have picked Kolbe to die in the first
place. ‘Furthermore,’ he said, ‘Kolbe took a risk. He stepped out of line to go
up to the commander and for this he could have been killed on the spot. Now there
has been a most searching investigation of the survivors who saw had heard what
happened. We asked them whether they
heard of saw in the commander’s face of in the face of any of the guards any
satisfaction that they were god for chance to kill a priest. There was none of
this. The commander simply said to Kolbe, well, if you want to, go ahead.’”
“Whatever the
reasons, it is patently clear that the local bishops play a decisive role in
determining who will be named a martyr. As we have already seen, it was at the
request of the German and Polish bishops that the saint-makers bent to the task
of transforming the causes of Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe from confessor
to martyr. This is not to suggest that the saint-makers lack independence in
investigating and evaluating causes; on the contrary, the Kolbe case
demonstrates just how independent the saint-makers can be. But it is to suggest
that the making of martyrs, like martyrdom
itself, is also a political act. Even after the saint-makers have proved
a martyr’s cause, it is up to the pope, in consultation with the local bishops
and the Vatican Secretariat of State, to calculate the consequences of
proceeding to a declaration of martyrdom.”
George Weigel continues the
point: “October 10, 1082, a magnificent autumn morning, found a quarter of a
million people in St. Peter’s Square, where they saw a great banner, a portrait of Father Kolbe, draped
from the central loggia. Still, the question hung in the air: Would Kolbe be
recognized as a martyr? The answer came when John Paul II processed out of the basilica
and into the square wearing red vestments, the liturgical color of martyrs. He
had overridden the counsel of his advisory commission, and in his homily he declared
that ‘in virtue of my apostolic authority, I have decreed that Maximilian Mary
Kolbe, who following his beatification was venerated as a confessor, will
henceforth be venerated also as a martyr!’
“John Paul II was
making an important theological point in deciding that St. Maximillian Kolbe
was indeed a martyr – systematic hatred for the human person… was a
contemporary equivalent of the traditional criterion for martyrdom, odium fidei. Because Christian
faith affirmed the truth about the inalienable dignity of the human person,
anyone who hated that truth hated, implicitly, the Christian faith. Modern
totalitarianism was an implicit form of odium fidei, because it reduced persons
to things.”[1]
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