German bishop whose homilies denounced Hitler's regime beatified at Vatican

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by Reinhard Lettmann, Bishop of Mnster, Germany during the beatification ceremony of German bishop Clemens August von Galen in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY- A German bishop whose homilies boldly condemned anti-Semitism and other policies of Hitler's Nazi regime was beatified Sunday in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica, moving him a step closer to possible sainthood. Clemens August von Galen, known as the Lion of Muenster for his courageous sermons while bishop of the Germany city, died in 1946, shortly after pope Pius XII promoted him to cardinal. Von Galen's homilies were secretly copied and circulated, according to German church officials. He also spoke out against the Nazi campaign to exterminate the mentally ill and handicapped. Pope John Paul used to lead the beatification ceremonies before large crowds in St. Peter's Square, but Pope Benedict has turned over the ceremonies to prelates. Sunday's was presided over by Jose Saraiva Cardinal Martins, who heads the Vatican office that oversees the procedures for beatification and sainthood. Beatification is the last formal step before possible sainthood. Saraiva Martins hailed the bishop for denouncing the Nazi's "death machine" during what were "very difficult times for the German Catholic church." German-born Benedict arrived at the end of the ceremony to deliver remarks in his native tongue. "Von Galen feared God more than man and this gave him the courage to say and to (do) things that many intelligent persons did not do in that period in Germany," he said. Some Jews have claimed that Pius did not act forcefully enough against the Holocaust. The Vatican has denied the accusations. Benedict continued his praise of von Galen's courage when the pontiff addressed tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square after the beatification ceremony. "In the name of God, he denounced the neo-pagan ideology of national socialism, defending the freedom of the Church . . . protecting the Jews and the weakest persons, which the regime considered garbage to eliminate," Benedict said. According to Muenster's Bishop Reinhard Lettmann, von Galen was "deeply dejected" when Nazis deported other clergy to concentration camps in his place as punishment for speaking out. The Nazis were worried that if von Galen were arrested and killed, the city's residents would be angered and "written off as lost during the duration of the war," according to a brief biography by Lettmann about the prelate. Von Galen helped a Protestant pastor hide a Jewish boy in an institute belonging to the bishop's office and took responsibility for the youth, who after the war was reunited with his mother, according to testimony carried by Vatican Radio. John Paul prayed at von Galen's grave in Muenster during a 1987 trip to Germany. By France Emilio