A friend of mine rang up last night excited that a priest he knew was being made a Cardinal.My friend had worked in Albania for almost a decade and the Cardinal-elect is Fr Ernest Simoni, who suffered imprisonment for 28 years.
He was betrayed by his sacristan, on his release one of his first visits was to him, he embraced him and asked him to come back and continue his service.
In prison, at least in later years, his guards and local Communist officials would invite him to come and bless, or sometimes exorcise their homes.
Now, he spends much of his time giving spiritual direction and hearing confessions.
See Zenit's comments
3 comments:
Good evening, Padre:
I am an Albanian American, and have studied the persecution of the Church, its loyal members under the hands of Enver Hoxha. I even visited Albania during communism. I can tell you that the Albanian Church is a church of martyrs. A good book on this is "Live to Tell" by Fr. Zef Pllumi. It is truly a euphoric day for the Church of Albania. Thanks for posting, Padre.
Yes but he can't vote in conclave. It is a form of tokenism. Francis choice of cardinals particularly Americans shows he is seeking to perpetuate the 1970's mindset. Its all he has known and quite frankly Francis is a symptom of what is wrong in South America. Why can't Catholic cultures really produce stable just societies based on Jesus' teaching?
I well remember watching the news on the first Christmas Day after the fall of Hoxha. Amidst the usual round up of Christmas services round the world was a film of an elderly priest celebrating in Albania for the first time in decades. "He is explaining what Christmas is" was the comment. Most moving.
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