Israeli Holocaust museum honors Byzantine Catholic bishop
Jerusalem, Jan. 29, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem has accorded the title of "Righteous among the Nations" to Blessed Pavol Gojdic, A Byzantine bishop who served in Slovakia from 1926 to 1960.

The rabbi of Kosice, Slovakia, Jossi Steiner, and a Jewish woman whose life was saved by Bishop Gojdic initiated the process to grant the honorary title to the Catholic prelate, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II (bio - news) in 2001.

The honor granted to Bishop Gojdic, who suffered imprisonment under the Communist regime, has special significance as Jewish people have sometimes accused Catholics in Slovakia of actively assisting the Holocaust.

A great man of God and it was my grandfather, Fr. John, who first told me about the stigmata that Bl. Pavel Goyjdicz received while in prison.

Alex

Dear Danielik (you are a Priest?),

My grandfather was a priest under the communists until he was released to the West in 1966 with my grandmother, Irene and the stigmata of Bl. Pavel were, according to him, talked about everywhere. My grandfather also spent time in Slovakia and in Hungary.

Bl. Pavel's picture was always together with the new martyrs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church (as was that of Bl. Theodore Romzha) so I always considered him to be Ukrainian!

When I was reading a book about Bl. Pavel and his picture appeared, my grandfather stopped me and said, "That holy one bled from the hands and feet in prison . . ."

It was a blessing to me to have my grandparents and to receive the witness of their piety and life experience.

Alex

There is no doubt at all that Blessed Paul deserves this honor.

Nonetheless, there remains the question of why the Zionists have all these decades refused any recognition to the considerable efforts of Metropolitan Andrew, who at great risk to himself saved a serious number of Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis. Apparently they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that the most important and outstanding Ukrainian leader of the 20th century actually rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

But let us rejoice that they have acknowledged Blessed Paul. During World War II the notorious Msgr Tiso abused Bishop Paul shamefully - but this did not stop Bishop Paul from interceding for Tiso when he was sentenced to death for war crimes.

Fr. Serge

Bless, Father Archimandrite,

What is even more important is why Rome has steadfastly refused to beatify Metropolitan Andrew . . .

Alex