Pope, Romanian bishops, Jewish officials pay tribute to martyred bishop

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Blessed Iuliu Hossu, the Romanian Greek Catholic bishop of Cluj-Gherla, was named a cardinal “in pectore” — secretly — by St. Paul VI in 1969.

But the bishop was in a communist prison in Romania and never received his red hat.

Pope Leo XIV, along with representatives of the Romanian church and the country’s Jewish community, paid tribute to the martyred bishop June 2 during an evening ceremony in the Sistine Chapel.

Pope Leo XIV greets Silviu Vexler, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, during a ceremony honoring Blessed Iuliu Hossu in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican June 2, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The bishop was arrested, imprisoned and denied his freedom for decades because he refused to join the Orthodox Church after the Greek Catholic Church was outlawed by the communist government.

But the ceremony in the Sistine Chapel also honored the bishop for what Pope Leo described as “his courage and heroism before the communist takeover of Romania,” when he stood up for and saved thousands of Jews in Northern Transylvania between 1940 and 1944 as “the Nazis were carrying out their heinous plan of deporting them to extermination camps.”

“At enormous risk to himself and to the Greek Catholic Church, Blessed Hossu undertook extensive activities on behalf of the Jews aimed at preventing their deportation,” the pope said. And in 1944, “he mobilized the Greek Catholic clergy and faithful through a pastoral letter” in which he called on them “to help the Jews not only with your thoughts, but also with your sacrifice, knowing that there is no act more noble to be carried out today than providing Christian and Romanian assistance, born of ardent human charity.”

Silviu Vexler, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania and a member of the Romanian parliament, told the gathering, “The actions of Cardinal Iuliu Hossu are unimaginable and almost incomprehensible to almost all of us: during the Holocaust, the darkness of history, he placed himself, his community and his church in peril, without regard to the possibility of being destroyed in order to try and save people that were unknown to him.”

“It is not his suffering that must define the image we hold of him, but the strength of his beliefs,” Vexler said. “The strength, courage, dignity and power of the faith that Cardinal Hossu displayed in front of evil continue to be a symbol that guides me, now and for the future.”

Thanking Pope Leo, Vexler told him, “At the beginning of your pontificate allow me to make the following wish, on behalf of the Jews and Jewish communities in Romania: May G-d give you the strength to bring hope to those without hope, to make those that cry smile, to bring peace to those without comfort, to bring love to those that hate and to bring faith to those that lost it.”

Pope Leo said Blessed Hossu is an example of how the spirit of the martyrs is “an unshakeable faith in God, devoid of hatred and coupled with a spirit of mercy that turns suffering into love for one’s persecutor.”

“Cardinal Hossu’s message remains most timely,” the pope said. “What he did for the Jews of Romania, and his efforts to protect his neighbor in spite of all risks and dangers, today make him a model of freedom, courage and generosity, even to the point of making the supreme sacrifice.”

The pope prayed that the example of Blessed Hossu, “which anticipated the teaching later expressed in the declaration ‘Nostra Aetate’ of the Second Vatican Council — the 60th anniversary of which is approaching — together with your friendship, will serve as a beacon for today’s world.”

“Let us say ‘No!’ to violence in all its forms, and even more so when it is perpetrated against those who are defenseless and vulnerable, like children and families,” Pope Leo said.