110 Poles honoured by Pope in Warsaw ceremony

Pope John Paul yesterday conducted one of the biggest beatification ceremonies of his pontificate, honouring 110 Poles who died…

Pope John Paul yesterday conducted one of the biggest beatification ceremonies of his pontificate, honouring 110 Poles who died for their beliefs or dedicated their lives to charity.

He had a small, white bandage on his right temple where three stitches closed a cut he suffered on Saturday after falling in his bathroom. His spokesman said the fall was not serious.

Some 108 clergy and lay people were beatified for martyrdom suffered during Poland's violent occupation by Nazi German forces during the second World War. Most died in concentration camps.

The Pope also beatified Regina Protmann, daughter of a wealthy 16th century family, who founded an order of nuns to help plague victims in north-eastern Poland.

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The other non-martyr was Edmund Bojanowski, a 19th century charity worker who founded a religious order and organised passive resistance to Prussian repression.

Some 700,000 attended the beatification Mass in Warsaw's central Pilsudski square. The Pope drew special attention to the fate of Archbishop Julian Nowowiejski who, at 83, was beaten, stripped and humiliated by concentration camp guards for refusing to step on his bishop's cross.

Vatican intervention saved Bishop Wladyslaw Goral from a death sentence but he died in Sachsenhausen months before the camp was liberated.

The Roman Catholic Church was severely repressed by the Nazis in Poland, who saw it as a focus of resistance. Many of the priests who were arrested were accused of continuing their religious work illegally. Others, including Father Jozef Pawlowski who was hung in Dachau in 1942, were jailed for trying to help Jews.

Laity were also on the Papal list, including Marianna Biernacka (55), who volunteered to replace her pregnant daughter-in-law who was picked for a German reprisal execution.

The Pope also honoured five young Catholics beheaded in Dresden prison for resistance work and two priests who cared for those wounded in the unsuccessful Warsaw Uprising in 1944.