Letter of November 25, 2005

‘Lion of Münster' Beatified October 9, 2005
The Most Reverend Carl F. Mengeling, Bishop of Lansing

On Sunday, October 9, in St. Peter Basilica, Cardinal Clemens von Galen was declared ‘blessed’. As Bishop of the Diocese of Münster from 1933 to 1946 he was called ‘Lion of Münster’ because of his daring preaching against the National Socialist (NAZI) regime.

At the end of the Mass of Beatification, celebrated by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Pope Benedict entered the Basilica. These are highlights from his address: "All of us are grateful because the Lord has given us this great witness of faith who made the light of truth shine out in dark times and had the courage to oppose the power of tyranny."

Recalling the dark times in Germany under Hitler and National Socialism (NAZI) in which Blessed Clemens gave heroic witness, the Pope said: "We must ask; ‘Where did this insight come from in a period when intelligent people seemed as if they were blind? Where did he find the strength to oppose it at a time in which even the strong proved weak and cowardly?

He drew insight and strength from the faith that showed him the truth and opened his heart and his eyes. He feared God more than men, and it was God who granted hm the courage to do and say what others did not dare to say and do."

Clemens von Galen was born on March 16, 1878 in Oldenburg, Germany, the 11th of 13 children of Ferdinand and Elizabeth von Galen. Due to the struggles between the Church and State in the time of Bismarck, he and his brothers were sent to a Jesuit school in Feldkirch, Austria.

Clemens was ordained for the Diocese of Münster on May 28, 1904. For two years he served as a Vicar of the Cathedral. The next23 years (1906-1929) he served three parishes in Berlin. At St. Mathias (10 years) he was revered for his special concern for the poor and outcasts.

In 1929 he was called back to Münster to be pastor of St. Lambert Parish. After the death of the bishop, Father Clemens was appointed bishop of Münster and consecrated on October 28, 1933. He was the first new bishop during Hitler’s Nazi regime.

He chose a motto from the rite of consecration "Nec laudiburs, nec timore" (Neither praise nor fear will distance me from God).

Cardinal Martins, who presided at the Mass of Beatification delivered the homily. These excerpts highlight Blessed Clemen’s heroic leadership: "A characteristic feature of the famous Cardinal Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster, whose beatification today fills our hearts with joy, is that he eminently and heroically practiced the virtues of a Christian and a Pastor in a period so fraught with difficulties for the Church and for the German Nation.

Germany was then dominated by National Socialism. The Diocese of Münster can boast of having had as Bishop, on the Chair of St. Ludger, a Pastor who boldly opposed the ideology that despised humanity and the death mechanism of the National Socialist State. This earned him the well-deserved nickname, "Lion of Münster".

At the very outset of his pastoral work in Münster, Bishop von Galen unmasked the ideology of National Socialism and its contempt for human beings. In the middle of the war in the summer of 1941, he criticized it even more harshly in the three homilies he gave in the months of July and August that year, which have become famous.

In them he targeted the obligatory closure of convents and the arrest of Religious. He spoke vigorously against the deportation and destruction of those human lives that the regime deemed unworthy to be lived, that is, the mentally disabled. The Bishop’s fiery words dealt fatal blows to the Nazi’s systematic extermination policy.

His clear arguments infuriated the Nazi leaders who were at a loss as to what to do next, because they did not have the nerve to arrest or kill him due to Bishop von Galen’s extraordinary authority.

It was neither innate courage nor excessive temerity. Only a deep sense of responsibility and a clear vision of what was right and what was wrong could have induced Bishop Clemens August to speak these words. They invite us to reflect on the brilliance of his witness to faith; in times that may seem less threatening but are just as problematic with regard to human life, they invite us to imitate his example.

After the war, he was created Cardinal by Pius XII and the 68 year old returned to Münster on March 16, 1946. On the site of a bombed cathedral he spoke to more than 50,000. He thanked them for their fidelity to him during the Nazi regime. None knew that he was gravely ill and underwent surgery on March 19. He died three days later on March 22.

Shortly before his death on March 22, 1946, Cardinal Von Galen, reflecting on what happened at that time, said: "The good Lord gave me a position that obliged me to call what was black, black and what was white, white, as outlined in episcopal ordination. I knew that I could speak on behalf of thousands of people, who, like me, were convinced that only on the basis of Christianity could our German people truly be united and attain a blessed future."

These words of John Paul II are an apt conclusion: "It is when the night envelops us that we must think of the breaking dawn and that we believe the church is reborn each morning through her saints."