The inquiry into the sainthood cause of Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek, a missionary who was imprisoned in the Soviet Union for 23 years, has taken a “major step forward,” with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints issuing a declaration that the investigation is valid.
“This breakthrough in the process is very encouraging and a testimony to the commitment and dedication of all those involved,” Bishop John Barres of Allentown, Pa., said March 19.
The Diocese of Allentown’s investigation into the priest’s life, virtues and reputation for sanctity is valid, the congregation declared. The congregation transferred responsibility for the cause to the Diocese of Allentown from the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, N.J., in 1996.
The diocese’s inquiry into Father Ciszek’s reputation for holiness collected materials and documentation, including testimony from 45 witnesses. It also gathered the priest’s published and unpublished works and forwarded them to Rome in 2006. At the congregation’s request, in 2011 it sent additional documentation from the Father Ciszek Center in Shenandoah, Pa., and from the Jesuit archives in the U.S. and Rome.
“This is a major step forward in the effort to see Father Ciszek canonized as a saint of the Church,” Matt Kerr, the Diocese of Allentown’s communications director, told EWTN News March 20.
“Father Ciszek grew up in Shenandoah, in a small town upstate here. The church where he was baptized is still an active church in the diocese.”
The ruling means that the focus of the cause now shifts from the local diocese to Rome.
Msgr. Anthony Muntone, the diocesan co-postulator for the canonization cause, said the next phase of the process involves a presentation from the Roman postulator, the writing of a biography, and the compilation of information proving Father Ciszek’s heroic virtue.
Nine theologians will then examine the information to determine whether the priest heroically exhibited the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.
If the theologians agree that his life showed heroic virtue, they will recommend his cause to the bishops and cardinals of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to study. If that congregation approves, Pope Benedict XVI will receive the results of the inquiry and decide whether to declare Father Ciszek “Venerable.”
Upon papal approval, the cause will then investigate any claims of miracles before he can be officially recognized as a saint.
Father Ciszek was born in 1904 in Shenandoah, Pa. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1928 and was ordained in 1937, after being trained to say Mass in the Russian rite.
After two years in Poland, he used the chaos of World War II as a cover to enter the Soviet Union so that he could minister to Christians who lived under communist persecution.
He was arrested by the Soviet authorities as a supposed spy in 1941. His imprisonment included torturous interrogation, solitary confinement and years of hard labor near the Arctic Circle. Despite the dangers, he said Mass in secret and heard the confessions of other prisoners.
When he was not imprisoned, he also ministered to several parishes.
The priest was returned to the U.S. in a spy exchange in 1963.
He recounted his trials and reflected on their spiritual meaning in his popular memoirs He Leadeth Me and With God in Russia.
Father Ciszek died at Fordham University in New York on Dec. 8, 1984.
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His book “He Leadeth Me” was life transforming! When I finished it I had a greater understanding of what it meant to totally abandone oneself to the will of God. It was recomended to me by spiritual director, and now I recomend it to anyone who is looking for a good spiritual book to read. I hope many people can get their hands on it and read it! Hopefully his canonization process will move along quickly! We will pray for his cause -
Just finished reading, “With God in Russia” what an amazing story. Good to see that his cause is moving forward.
I had never heard of Father Ciszek, but unexpectedly came upon his rather humble gravesite while making a spiritual retreat at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, PA several years ago (he is buried alongside other Jesuits in the small cemetery located within the beautiful grounds of the Center). I spent the remaining days of my retreat reading and learning about his life and the hardships he endured behind the “Iron Curtain”.
I read his “With God in Russia” and was really an amazing book. It not only went into the tortures he received and the details of the camps, but heroically ministering to the people in Russia.
It also gave the reader a synopsis of the faith in Russia as well as descriptions of various cities involved. I think even then than the Grace of God was working within the people as well as even the so called officials of the Communist Party. It’s strange that i don’t remember this exchange of prisoners in 1963, and if I hadn’t happen to come upon a description of this book, I’d never read it. For you Kindle fans, it’s also available on that, and thats where I downloaded it.
Since he was of the Byzantine faith, if he is beatified, I’m sure that Catholics in that rite will also be happy.
I frequently served his Byzantine Liturgies. That’s how I learned most of my Church Slavonic. People came from all over the East coast to confess to him or get his advice. He always had nice things to say about me—a definite proof of heroic virtue. On one occasion, he coached me along in a conversation with the then Father Kyril Kundayev,now Patriarch Kyril of Moscow. It’s funny in a way, that the decree was issued on March 19th, St Joseph’s day. On March 19th,1972, I remember meeting the Servant of God Terence Cardinal Cooke. Co-incidences are God’s way of speaking to us.
Fr. Ciszek’s book “He Leadeth Me” changed my life. I pray his cause may move forward so others may become familiar with his beautiful life and witness.
This is great news indeed! However, I would like to point out that is was not mass that he was trained for, but rather it is properly called Divine Liturgy, and he was trained in the Slavic tradition of Byzantine rite, since there is no Russian rite per se. He was trained as such so that he could serve the Russian Catholic Church. So just thought I’d point out a few minutia in terms of terminology (and the difference between rite and sui juris Church). Thanks for the article.
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