English
Pope Francis signed a decree of heroic virtues of the Polish “Primate of the Millennium”, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. From that moment Wyszynski is officially granted the title of the Venerable Servant of God.
On December 12, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints ended the work on the “Positio super virtutibus” and expressed a positive opinion of the heroic virtues of Cardinal Wyszynski. The 3-volume “Positio” was elaborated under the guidance of the postulator of the process, Fr. prof. Zbigniew Suchecki, while in November 2016, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz submitted it in the Vatican congregation. For the beatification is now only necessary the miracle through the intercession of Cardinal Wyszynski.
“I am very grateful to Pope Francis and to all who worked on the preparation of the beatification materials for the process. We are waiting for the conclusion of the process that will show his figure in a fuller light and his merits for the Church and for Poland”, said Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, President of the Polish Bishop’s Conference.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski was born in August 3, 1901, in Zuzela. After the studies in Warsaw, Łomża and Wloclawek, Wyszynski was ordained in 1924 and was assigned to the basilica at Wloclawek. After gaining the doctorate title in sociology and canon law at the Catholic University of Lublin, he studied further in France, Italy, and Belgium. He returned to Wloclawek as rector of the seminary in March 1945; one year later he was appointed bishop of Lublin, and on Nov. 12, 1948, Pope Pius XII transferred him to the primatial see of Gniezno and, ad personam, of Warsaw. On Nov. 29, 1952, he was named cardinal but was unable to go to Rome to receive formal investiture until 1957. In 1953 he was put under house arrest without trial when the government claimed that he had violated a pledge that the church would punish priests who engaged in anti-government activity. In this period he wrote the “Vows of Polish Nation”, which were read in Jasna Gora on 26 August, 1956, in the present of one Million of Poles. In the same year Cardinal was released. He prepared his country for the celebration of the Millennium of Baptism of Poland, which took place in 1966. Later on he played an important role in electing John Paul II pope in 1978. Wyszynski was often called “the Primate of the Millennium”. Twenty years after his death, the Polish church celebrated 2001 as the year of Stefan Wyszynski.
