ROME — The authority with which Cardinal Ernest Simoni speaks today was bought at a terrible price. 

Arrested on Christmas Eve 1963 after celebrating a Mass for the repose of the soul of slain President John F. Kennedy, he was condemned to death by Albania’s communist regime simply for exercising his priesthood, before the sentence was commuted and he spent 18 years in prison.

During his time in jail, he endured torture and harsh conditions, but he continued to offer the sacraments in secret and refused every attempt to make him renounce his faith or denounce the Church in what became in 1967 the world’s first “atheist state.” After his release in 1981, he was still considered an “enemy of the people” and was forced to work in mines and sewers, but he continued to exercise his priestly ministry clandestinely until the fall of the communist regime in 1990.

Pope Francis, who called Cardinal Simoni a “living martyr,” elevated him to cardinal 10 years ago this November.

In this June 28 interview with the Register in Rome following Pope Leo XIV’s second consistory of cardinals, Cardinal Simoni, 97, addresses those who today are persecuted for the faith. Drawing on Holy Scripture and on his own experience in prison cells and labor camps, the Albanian prelate insists that fidelity to Christ, the keeping of the commandments, and participation in the sacraments are not pious abstractions but the very path by which believers withstand the assaults of ideologies and regimes opposed to the Gospel.

Speaking as one who never succumbed to hatred for his persecutors and instead celebrated Mass for them, he urges Christians to unite prayer, penance, forgiveness and love of enemies, and to see suffering for Jesus as a mysterious participation in the joy of the Resurrection. He also offered pastoral advice to young people. 

 

What advice, Your Eminence, would you give to people who are being persecuted today for Jesus’ sake, persecuted out of hatred for the faith, just as you were, in the Middle East and other countries?

Today is the eve of Sts. Peter and Paul, the two apostles whom Jesus appointed to establish the Church, a worldwide institution for all ages. Jesus asks St. Peter, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jesus asked, “But you, Peter, who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” — the one who holds the power of heaven and earth, who came here to save all peoples of all times, until Jesus’ second coming into the world to judge the living and the dead. 

So, stand firm. Keeping the Ten Commandments means attending Holy Mass, sanctifying marriage, and rejecting all forms of immoral behavior — for, as St. Paul says, live a holy life like Jesus. Those who are with Jesus have crucified their bodies, their flesh, along with all their passions. It’s here, united with Jesus, and through divine grace, that we overcome all the temptations and seductions that Satan uses to ruin society and the Catholic Church. Resist through prayer, penance and fasting. 

The kingdom of God is within us; every deed is for the love of Jesus; every act of forgiveness is for our enemies. Love your enemies; pray for your friends — for Jesus says that infinite joy cannot enter the human heart unless you have “followed me and my teachings,” and then He will entrust you “to the care of my Father in Heaven.” This is not a promise from a priest or an idol, but from my Jesus, full of love, the Good Shepherd, who possesses the power of the Resurrection, as St. Paul says.

If it weren’t for the Resurrection, the faith would be beautiful, but it would amount to nothing. Jesus has destroyed death; Jesus has granted the Resurrection, so no one truly dies. The flesh changes, and the immortal, immaterial spirit departs according to the deeds we have performed. So perseverance, hope, prayer, forgiveness, self-denial and the Holy Rosary to the Blessed Virgin Mary are needed to obtain divine grace and to know the truth — because we are travelers, and with Jesus everything is beautiful. As He said: “Without Me you can do nothing.” Everyone is flesh, and the flesh rots in the ground, but the immortal spirit will live for all eternity because Jesus is the power against death and the Giver of life and true happiness.

 

What advice do you have for ordinary people who might be suffering greatly these days?

As Jesus says: You who are homeless, without money, without a shirt on your back, without shoes, without anything — come to me. Come, all of you, like children; come to me now, and I will lift you up into infinite joy — to paradise. But seek justice; justice and the glory of the Lord, and you will have every good.

Jesus tells us, and it says in Holy Scripture, to “pray without ceasing.” He doesn’t say, “Pray for one or two hours.” In other words, while working, doing your duties, fulfilling your commitments — everything — never forget prayer because prayer is the star that shines and leads us to Jesus, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

When they persecute you, when they make you suffer, when they throw you into prison, rejoice, because the world, material things, sinners want such things, poor souls that they are. But you have overcome the world — you have hope — because all this will pass away, and the terrible suffering that is laid upon you, the world will eliminate, and you will be left with the light and happiness that no one can express. There is hope for all who suffer today for Jesus. Suffering for Jesus is an infinite joy that awaits us all.

 

During your persecution, what gave you the strength to persevere? 

Divine grace, divine help. When the protomartyr, St. Stephen, following Jesus, faced martyrdom — stones thrown at his head and his body bloodied — he said to his enemies, “I see heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, who has given me the promise of infinite joy.” This is the destiny of all who are faithful to Jesus and facing a true trial.

 

Your Eminence, you once said that you never used words of hatred against your persecutors. Can you tell us more?

I did not hate them; I celebrated Mass for their salvation even while they were still alive. All of heaven, everything, will pass away — as will all the beauty of this world, the riches, the joys, the emperors, the great and mighty, the billionaires, the powerful. We are flesh that dies on earth, but the spirit is immortal; it is immaterial. […] Above all, the Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, is present, who, like a mother, never judges but intercedes at every moment to save the whole world, all the people of the world.

 

Forgiveness is also very important too?

To forgive and pray. Love your enemies, and pray for your enemies.

What advice would you give to young people today, many of whom have a sense of hopelessness? 

To today’s youth, to many of those within the Church, I say to them that they must represent the living Jesus. He is not a figment of history or a myth. They must ask themselves, as Jesus did to the young man: “What must I do to gain eternal life?”

Jesus said: “If you keep My commandments and obey My teaching, you will remain in My love.” Keeping the commandments means sanctifying marriage and consigning cohabitation and all such offenses to perdition. Jesus must have the first place, like the sun on the horizon, which shines and illuminates the whole world. Nations will perish because of a lack of love; they do not love as He loves. And with Jesus gone, the world will lie under Satan’s claws, and no one knows, unless they convert, where the world will go, where it will end up.

So young people must be the first standard-bearers, carrying the banner of Jesus in their homes, in prayer, in self-denial, at the Holy Mass, in loving their parents, and in spreading the living Jesus and his infinite love in good faith by loving all — Muslims, atheists, everyone. Now, we must accompany all. I have no other words to describe it, but I feel the power of the shining castle that Jesus has built and continues to build every day to save all of humanity, through the Holy Mass and Mary. 

 

What are your concerns regarding the contemporary Church? 

A serious question? Jesus told us, “You are the light of the world.” We, as sinners, are the salt of the earth, but how many of us are truly the light of Jesus? How many of us are willing to suffer to proclaim the Gospel and are committed to proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus, the infinite power of love that saves all humanity? We priests live solely to proclaim Jesus, to save souls through the grace of Jesus, to be close to all the poor, to help all young people to turn away from promiscuity and immorality. As St. Paul says, those who are like Christ have crucified their bodies and follow the law of morality and chastity. Chastity is the mountain of victory leading to paradise; without chastity is hell. 

Jesus rewards all our worries, sufferings and prayers immeasurably if we are close to Him. […] St. Paul says, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” And He will be with us, too, if we exalt Jesus through our works, acts of reparation, penance and Holy Mass — and by abstaining from all forms of sexual immorality, drugs — truly all of that. Love your parents above all else, after loving God; do the Lord’s will; be a source of comfort to your father, your mother and all children; ask questions, seek advice, and give that love, the most powerful of which is the love of a father and mother. 

 

What is your opinion on the consistory? Was it very helpful? Were you able to support the Holy Father through it?

Indeed, I’ve been saying this since the year I was ordained, as a lowly member of the Church, that all cardinals must be united with Jesus through the Holy Father, helping him with all their words, deeds, prayer and justice because he is the representative of the living Jesus in the world. And they must strengthen him whenever he speaks for the faith. So let us all be united through prayer, mortification, the Holy Mass, charity and chastity; then the angels will accompany us in our daily works, and we will be happy with the angels.