FR. JOZEF CEBULA, OMI, BEATIFIED
In Warsaw on Sunday, June 13, Pope John Paul II proclaimed 110 new Blessed of whom 108 were martyrs. Among them were Fr Jozef Cebula (1902-1941), who died in the Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen, and Blesseds Edmund Bojanowski and Antoni Reweera, of whom we will speak below. Our Superior General, Fr Wilhelm Steckling, Bishop Eugeniusz Juretzko, of Yokadouma (Cameroon), Fr Pawel Latusek, Provincial of Poland, and Fr Kazimierz Lubowicki, vice-postulator for Cebula's cause, were among the concelebrants. Close to a million faithful gathered on Pilsudski Square for the ceremony.
In his homily for the occasion the Holy Father said: "Today we are celebrating the victory of those who, in our century, gave their lives for Christ, gave their temporal lives, in order to possess life forever in his glory. This victory has a special character, since it was shared by clergy and laity alike, by young people and old, by people from different classes and states. Among them are Archbishop Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, Pastor of the Diocese of Plock, tortured to death at Dzialdowo; Bishop Wladyslaw Goral of Lublin, tortured with particular hatred simply because he was a Catholic Bishop. There are diocesan and religious priests who died because they chose not to abandon their ministry and those who died serving their fellow prisoners who were sick with typhus; some were tortured to death because they defended Jews. In the group of Blesseds there are religious brothers and sisters who persevered in the service of charity and in offering their torments for their neighbour. Among the blessed martyrs there are also lay people. There are five young people formed in the Salesian oratorio; a zealous activist of the Catholic Action, a lay catechist tortured to death for his service and an heroic woman, who gave up her own life in exchange for that of her daughter-in-law who was with child. These blessed martyrs are today inscribed in the history of holiness of the People of God on pilgrimage for over 1,000 years in the land of Poland."
A good number of Polish Oblates were present, including Fr Ryszard Szmydki, Assistant General, as well as fifty or so Oblates from all over (France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Canada, the United States, Latin America...), who had answered the invitation of the Polish Province. Among them were some Provincials and also the Postulator General, Fr James FitzPatrick. Some Polish Oblates, who had personally known the Blessed, as students at the juniorate or as his novices, were also present.
A real pilgrimage
The Polish Province organized a four day pilgrimage for the Oblates present. They visited places where the new Blessed had lived: Markowice, Lubliniec, Malnia..., as well as other Oblate centers like Kedzierzin, Wroclaw, Obra.... There was also a stop at Czestochowa. The celebration on Monday morning, June 14, was particularly moving. "Our first Eucharist in honor of Bl Jozef Cebula was celebrated in Markowice. Today it is the juniorate of the Polish Province and has sixty juniors, seven of whom have asked to enter the novitiate this year. Formerly, it was the novitiate and Bl Jozef spent the last four years of his life there as novice master. It is from this house that he and many others were deported to the concentration camps."
We quote our Superior General: "This Monday, the church was filled with people from the village, Oblates representing each community in the Province, the scholastics and the juniors. It was with deep emotion that I presided the noonday mass (in Latin) in the same church where the new Blessed used to celebrate, doing so in secret at the end of his life. During the entrance hymn, Fr Cebula's cross, the only relic we have of him, was placed in the sanctuary. The Provincial focused his homily on this cross. The choir of juniors sang the Mass of Saint Eugene, composed by Fr Vaughn Fayle for the canonization and first sung at St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls. In the afternoon the youth presented an impressive theatrical skit on the martyrdom of Bl Jozef which was followed by the blessing of a commemorative plaque. Fr Mathuni of the Vice Province of Austria, had brought a stone from the quarry at Mauthausen, in memory of the Blessed's forced labor. This stone was placed as a relic at the door of the convent beside the commemorative plaque...."
The Mass on Wednesday the 16th at Malnia, the Blessed's native village, was also moving. It was an open air Mass presided by the Auxiliary Bishop of Opole in the presence of members of Blessed Cebula's family. The homily was given by our Superior General in German and translated into Polish by Fr Alfons Kupka. The new Blessed could be a symbol of reconciliation between Poland and Germany in this region torn between these two countries by history. Some hours earlier, Father General had recorded the beatification in the baptism register in the parish of Otmet where Jozef had been baptized.
Publications
Several Oblate publications dedicated either a whole issue or a part thereof to Blessed Jozef. Besides the April OMI Info and especially OMI Documentation N°228 (May 1999), we might also call attention to a work by Fr Angelo Daddio, Provincial of Italy: a small 16 page insert in the May issue of Missioni OMI. There are two noteworthy books. The one by Fr. Jozef Pielorz of the Polish Vice Province, who had Fr Cebula as his novice master, is a biography entitled Meczennik za wiare (Martyr for the Faith). OMI Poznan, 162 pages, with 16 pages of photos. The other is a book by Fr Kazimierz Lubowicki, vice-postulator, with the title, Po prostu Kaplan (Simply a Priest. A Brief Portrait) He has brought together some of the documents and testimony collected for the process of beatification. OMI Poznan, 144 pages, with 16 pages of photos.
The liturgical feast of the Polish martyrs is fixed on June 12. Details will be given later about the possibility of a special liturgical celebration for Blessed Jozef Cebula, possibly on the anniversary day of his death at Mauthausen, May 9....
Celebration at Mauthausen
At the initiative of the Vice Province of Austria a celebration in honor of Blessed Jozef Cebula was held on Saturday June 26 at the site where he died, the grounds of the former concentration camp at Mauthausen, near the city of Linz. Oblates from Austria, Germany, Poland... took part in the celebration as did also Msgr. Schickelberger, representing the Diocese of Linz, and a group of members of the M.A.M.I.
Fr Gottfried Hofer planned the celebration around three "stations": the life of Jozef Cebula, his martyrdom, "the Blessed". Each station included the reading of some texts, mainly from OMI Documentation N°228, some hymns and prayers. The third station was held in the chapel, especially dedicated to the memory of Bl Marcel Callo, a young French JOC militant, "arrested for Catholic Action", who died from exhaustion at Mauthausen at the age of 24. He was beatified in 1987. It should be noted that Fr Bernhard Gerardi, of the German Province, was the main promoter of this cause in that country.
A celebration at the General House
On the same Sunday June 13 the communities at 290 Via Aurelia gathered to give thanks for the beatifications of Fr Jozef Cebula and Fr Antoni Reweera, the founder of the Institute of the Daughters of Saint Francis the Seraphic. As is known, five Sisters of this Institute assumed charge of various services at our General House last October: the kitchen, the laundry, the infirmary....
The Sisters and their guests, as well as the community of the International scholasticate and the various Oblate communities gathered at 4 p.m. for a Eucharist presided by Fr Eugene King, Vicar General. He was accompanied by Archbishop Marcello Zago and thirty other concelebrants. Bro Martin Sedlon of the Austrian Vice Province (Czech Republic) served as deacon. By happy coincidence three other Oblate bishops were passing through Rome: Jean-Claude Bouchard, Bishop of Pala (Chad), Hubert Constant, Bishop of Fort-Liberté (Haiti), and Paul Duffy, Bishop of Mongu (Zambia).
Portraits of Blesseds Jozef and Antoni were displayed in the sanctuary. At the beginning of the celebration, Sr Daniela, Superior of the Sisters, briefly presented Blessed Antoni. Then, Fr Marek Rostkowski presented Blessed Jozef. Using the readings for the 11th Sunday, Fr King stressed the unconditional love for God that led Jesus to give his life for sinners and that provokes a faith response that can even lead to martyrdom, as in the case of those being celebrated....
Blessed Antoni Reweera (1869-1942)
Born January 6, 1869 into a family of poor farmers in the region of Sandomierz south of Warsaw - this region of Poland was then part of the Russian Empire - Antoni Reweera was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Sandomierz in 1893. He was soon appointed professor and spiritual director at the diocesan major seminary. Made a Canon, and later Dean of the Chapter, he carried out one after the other, and sometimes simultaneously, different pastoral duties in the episcopal city, including that of prison chaplain. He is remembered as a very zealous priest who spent long hours in the confessional, organized help for the poor, began an association of Christian workers... while also writing numerous articles for various reviews.
He had a great devotion to St Francis of Assisi, and led and promoted the Franciscan Third Order. Some young women whom he gathered and the house he founded in 1928 to accommodate old and lonely members of the Third Order are at the origin of the Institute of the Daughters of Saint Francis the Seraphic, which was approved in 1959.
Fr Reweera was parish priest at St. Joseph's in Sandomierz when he was arrested by the Gestapo. He experienced the concentration camps at Auschwitz and then Dachau, where he continued as a priest for his fellow prisoners whose harsh sufferings he shared. He died at Dachau October 1, 1942. At the news of his death people in Sandomierz said: "Fr Reweera was only lacking a martyr's crown and now he has it."
Blessed Edmund Bojanowski (1814-1871)
Born into a family of the Polish nobility, the future Blessed dedicated himself as a young adult to instructing the farmers, to education and to charitable works. He passed on his spirit of faith and mutual love so well to the young women who helped him with his different works, that as a layman he became the founder of the Institute of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate.
The political situation in Poland – divided between Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary – led to this Institute breaking up into four autonomous branches which were later reunited into a Federation in 1991. These Sisters, who number 3,334, are present in thirty countries. Sisters from one of these branches, the Sisters Servants of Silesia, work with the Oblates in Poland (in several houses including the scholasticate at Obra) as well as in France, Canada, and since 1974, in Cameroon. At the beatification Mass in Warsaw on June 13, a Cameroonian sister joined two Polish sisters in the procession presenting the gifts to the Holy Father.
