Thousands Attending Beatification of Romanian Priest Murdered by Communists
A pavilion designed for trade fairs has become eastern Europe's biggest church when more than 10,000 people participated in the beatification of Mgr Vladimir Ghika, tortured to death at age 80 in 1954.
The August 31st ceremony, broadcast live on Romanian TV, brought together the country's two major Catholic rites, the Latin and Byzantine, whose members use an Orthodox-style liturgy. Blessed Ghika had the unusual authority, approved by Pope Pius XI, to celebrate liturgies in both rites. Born in Constantinople in 1873, Blessed Ghika was a diplomat and essayist who converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism and then became a priest.
As believers from across the country flowed into the massive, round hall, volunteers greeted each with a scarf to wear, printed with the martyr's serene and signature white beard.
Hundreds of priests and bishops processed toward an altar emblazoned in Vatican colors, yellow and white, offset by a large red cross, the color of martyrdom, as a brass ensemble conveyed the solemnity of an event marking a face-off between holiness and brutality.
Hermina Idomir, an 80-year-old Romanian Catholic professor from Brasov, said of Mgr Ghika: "He was treated worse than a dog in jail, this beautiful elderly priest. Everyone knew of his goodness - he started the first free clinic in Bucharest, the first ambulance service. He was a prince but preferred the poor. And the communists arrested him for writing a letter to the pope."
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