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Proces beatyfikacyjny
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The beatification process of the second group of Polish WWII martyrs is closely related to the beatification process of 17 martyrs of the Pelplin diocese, formerly of the Chełmno diocese. Preparations to start this process date back to the 1990s. The first ceremonial session of the Canonization Tribunal of Pelplin took place on the 29th September 1994. At first, there were plans to include 17 martyrs of the Pelplin diocese in the process of 108 martyrs who were beatified by John Paul II in 1999.
Because of various reasons, these plans did not succeed and therefore, further separate inquiry was required in their case.
After the beatification of 1999, it turned out that there are candidates of other dioceses and monastic communities to be beatified. They were not considered in the first process because, for example, the appropriate documentation failed to be prepared on time. The bishops of these dioceses and monastic superiors decided to include these candidates in the process conducted by the Pelplin diocese and the Conference of the Polish Episcopate agreed to this during the 310th plenary session of 15th March 2001.
The list of all the candidates to the glorious martyrdom comprised of 122 names of lay people and clergymen. All of them died at the hands of the Nazi invaders. They laid down their lives for their faith in various places in Poland and abroad as well e.g. in the concentration camps of Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Mittelbau, Buchenwald. With a view to starting legal proceedings, according to the guidelines of the Congregation for Canonization, the bishop of Peplin had to gain approval of the ordinaries administering the areas where the candidates to be beatified died their martyr’s death. The correspondence with the diocesan bishops of Poland, Germany, Austria and Belarus, concerning the requests for jurisdiction, lasted from August 2002 to February 2003.
Meanwhile, the bishop of Pelplin requested the Congregation for Canonization in Rome to grant him Nihil obstat for further legal proceedings. The Congregation informed him in the document of 10th January 2003 that the preliminary research concerning 105 people, the candidates who would be included in the Pelplin process, was started
On 17th June 2003 the Canonization Tribunal of Pelplin obtained Nihil obstat, or the document granting permission to conduct the beatification process and a letter giving a new title to the process: Pelplinen. Beatificationis seu Declarationis Martyrii Servorum Dei Henrici Szuman Sacerdotis Dioecesani et CXXI Sociorum, Sacerdotum Diocesanorum, Religiosorum et Religiosarum, Christifidelium Laicorum et Laicarum in odium Fidei, uti fertur, interfectorum. Then, the bishop of Pelplin Rev. Prof Jan Bernard Szlaga appointed the 17th September 2003 to be the day of the first session de 105 personis processum adiungendis. It took place on the appointed day at 11 in the building of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate, after the prior approval of the primate of Poland. During the session, the general postulator and 25 vice-postulators were sworn in.
On the 21st September 2003 the Canonization Tribunal of Pelplin held a session de tribunalis rogatorialibus construendis, which made it possible to set up rogatory tribunals all over Poland. The first rogatory letter with a view to setting up a rogatory tribunal in the archdiocese of Przemyśl was submitted by the Canonization Tribunal of Pelplin on the 25th September 2003. By the 29th December 2003 the rogatory tribunals in the ardioceses of Częstochowa, Gniezno, Warmia, Poznań, Kraków, Warsaw, Łódź and in the dioceses of Sandomierz, Tarnów, Warsaw-Praska, Kielce, Włocławek, Zamość-Lubaczów and Drohiczyn were set up.
On the 7th October 2003 the bishop of Pelplin established the Information Bulletin titled “Martyrs” concerning the Postulation of the Beatification Process of the 2nd Group of the Polish World War II Martyrs. It is a Polish national magazine, whose task is to inform the faithful about the progress of the process, its procedure and also to introduce profiles of the particular God’s servants. The magazine aims at spiritual formation as well. The first issue of this successful bulletin appeared under the imprint of “Bernardinum” - the Publishing House of the Pelplin Diocese in March 2004.
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