By Gunther Simmermacher
Catholic News Service
LUBECK, Germany – As the Nazi executioner beheaded three Catholic priests and a Lutheran pastor, one after another in a matter of minutes, their blood flowed together, creating a powerful symbol for ecumenism in northern Germany.
On 25 June, the three Catholic martyrs of Lubeck – Frs Johannes Prassek, Eduard Muller and Hermann Lange – will be beatified in the historic city’s Sacred Heart Church, a stone’s throw away from the Lubeck Cathedral, the ministerial home of the Rev. Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, their Lutheran counterpart. Rev Stellbrink will be honoured in a special way that day as well.
The four were executed in Hamburg on 10 November, 1943. All had been found guilty of disseminating anti-Nazi material – such as the homilies of Cardinal Clemens von Galen of Munster – and other “treasonous” activities. Although they were just four of more than 1,600 victims of Nazi political executions that year, their case drew the particular attention of Adolf Hitler and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Hitler reportedly intervened personally in the case of the four clerics, formulating the charges and instructing prosecutors on their strategy.
After the four were sentenced to death on 23 June, 1943, in a trial widely considered a farce, Goebbels wrote in his diary: “I urge that the death sentences will in fact be carried out.” An appeal for clemency by Catholic Bishop Hermann Berning of Osnabruck was rejected.
Fr Franz Mecklenfeld of Sacred Heart Church told CNS that news of the beatification was received with “immense joy” by his parishioners. It also is being followed “with great interest in the city of Lubeck,” traditionally a Lutheran stronghold.
In September, the daily Lubecker Nachrichten published a series of articles on the lives of the four martyrs.
“The martyrs have a great significance for the city,” Fr Mecklenfeld said.
“They have become ‘shining towers’ in the city of Lubeck,” where the skyline is famous for its seven Gothic church spires.
The notion of beatifying the three Catholics when their Lutheran companion cannot be honoured in the same way has given rise to some controversy.
The Rev Heinz Russmann, a Lutheran pastor in Lubeck, wrote that the beatification would represent a painful division that would be harmful to ecumenism. Either all four should be beatified, or none, he wrote.
His view is shared by the conservative local politician Hans-Lothar Fauth, a Catholic, who has said that all four have long been publicly acclaimed as saints, regardless of denomination, and therefore require no official recognition.