Cardinal Czerny praises Czech priests martyred for witnessing Christ

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

"The witness of Fr. Jan and Fr. Václav addresses each of us individually in our daily struggles, big and small. Their martyrdom teaches us that there is no human situation—however degrading or unjust—in which Christ cannot be witnessed."

Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, the Prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, offered this powerful reminder during the address he delivered on Wednesday at the conference titled “Blessed Martyrs of Communism,” organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the Holy See.

The encounter at the Pontifical College Nepomuceno in Rome remembered the martyrs Frs Jan Bula and Václav Drbola ahead of their beatification on June 6 at the Brno Exhibition Centre, marking the culmination of a beatification process that has lasted over 20 years

The Czech Catholic priests were martyred in odium fidei "hatred of the faith" by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Both were falsely accused in show trials and executed, and are widely honored for their faith and resistance to oppression.

Their lives pierced dark clouds of history

In his address, Cardinal Czerny remembered that all were gathered to give thanks for the lives of the two priests "who were able to transform the darkness of hatred and the cold of the gallows into the place of their living encounter with the Lord."

He also praised them as two witnesses "who testified with their very lives that light can pierce the dark clouds in history."

No violence can stifle the life of God in those who entrust themselves to Him

The Cardinal insisted that we do not commemorate a defeat, but celebrate the triumph of life.

"We admire the splendour of the grain of wheat that, after remaining hidden for decades in the furrow of Bohemian and Moravian soil—nurtured despite a difficult history, and fertilized by sacrifice—now springs forth before our eyes."

"This sprout, which broke through the frozen ground of atheism and oppression," Cardinal Czerny said, "is proof that no violence can stifle the life of God in those who entrust themselves to Him."

To celebrate the beatification of Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, Cardinal Czerny marveled, "means to place our hands upon the living wounds of the Church and of the Czech people, to touch the reality of the Lord’s promise: “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20), a promise that, he said, shines forth fulfilled and written in the blood and joy of these two priests."

God's hands were their support

Recalling that Scripture states that “the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God” (Wis 3:1), Cardinal Czerny reiterated that these 'hands' are not an abstract refuge.

Frs Jan Bula and Václav Drbola

"For Jan and Václav, God’s hands," the Vatican Prefect highlighted, "were their support behind the bars of the Jihlava prison, their defense during long interrogations, and the safeguard of their dignity, which remained intact even amid the most degrading humiliations."

The Cardinal called on those before him to join him in taking a moment to reflect on their martyrdom.

"The communist regime," the Cardinal underscored, "did not merely want to kill them; it wanted to annihilate their priestly identity. It wanted them to betray, to deny, to renounce their faith."

But God, Cardinal Czerny stated, "tested them like gold in the furnace,” and the fire of the regime, he marveled, "did not consume the gold of their faith," but rather "burned away only the dross of human fear, revealing a devotion to Christ to shine forth that leaves us in awe."

In this context, he recalled that many say in the hours preceding his death, Fr. Jan maintained a supernatural peace and serenity that does not belong to this world.

This, Cardinal Czerny suggested, is martyrdom: "not firstly an act of human heroism, but allowing oneself to be filled by the grace of God until there is no longer room for the “I,” but living only for the “You” of God and the “We” of the Church."

Christ can always be witnessed

The priests, Cardinal Czerny reminded those before him, could have chosen safety and the refuge of complicit silence, but instead "accepted being 'ground down' and became—using the words of Tertullian—the seed of new Christians in this land, their land, and, by unseen grace, throughout the world."

Their witness, the Cardinal stressed, demonstrates that there is no human situation where the Lord cannot be witnessed. 

"They transformed the courtroom into a pulpit and the prison into an altar," the Prefect of the Dicastery noted. "They were not men of steel; they were men of prayer."

Their love of Christ alone, the Cardinal insisted, gave them the courage to face slander, utter loneliness, and the noose.

"Their strength," he said, "did not lie in muscle, but in knees bent before the Tabernacle before their arrest, and in hearts united with Mary during their ordeal."

The Prefect observed that their martyrdom teaches us that fidelity to God is first found in small choices of consistency, not just in great gestures. 

Their martyrdom continues to spread the Gospel in world marked by hatred

"May their sacrificial offering help us to be Christians, citizens, men and women who know how to 'lose' our lives in service, forgiveness, and truth," the Cardinal said, with the certainty "that, beyond the veil of trial and death, awaiting us is the bright light of God’s loving smile and a joy that no one will ever be able to take from us."

Finally, Cardinal Czerny recalled Pope Leo XIV's words regarding the hope of the two martyrs as courageous witnesses to the faith.

Pope Leo called their hope "full of immortality, because through their martyrdom, the Gospel continues to spread in a world marked by hatred, violence, and war; because although they were killed in the body, no one will ever be able to silence their voice or erase the love they gave; and because their witness remains a prophecy of the victory of good over evil."