New Belgium " Martyrology '

First detailed " martyrology " of thirteen Belgian 'priests known in England to have been shot by the Germans or to have died in concentration camps has just been issued in a 15,000-word memorandum by Fr. Dantinne, DD., of the religious section of the Belgian Ministry of Information. Facts are added concerning other priests and religious who were sent to prison, while a recapitulation of the dignified words and acts of the Belgian bishops viral-eh the German military authority is a useful reminder that the spirit of resistance that made Cardinal Mercier famous in the last war is equally theirs in this.
Names of 'priests shot are: Fr. L. Cordonnier, Liege Diocese, d. March, 1943 Refused to recognise authority of Bishop of German diocese of Aixla-Chapelle • together with Bishop of Liege, Mgr. Kherkofs ceaselessly protested against mutilation of diocese which brought part of Liege under jurisdiction of the German prelate. Died for succouring Allied airmen. Fr. E. de Neckere, Bruges Diocese, d. Nov. 11, 1942. Fr. P. Desirant, Namur Diocese, d. Aug. 8, 1943. 33 years old. sang the Te Delilii on being led out to execution. Fr. P. Firket, Liege Diocese, d. Oct. 25, 1942. Brother L. Frenoy, of the Christian Brothers, d. December, 1942. Fr Grandjean, Namur Diocese, rector of Willerzie, d.
summer, 1942. Fr. Lamboray, Liege Diocese, rector of Sourbroodt, shot for
helping British airmen to escape. Fr, Peetere, Liege Diocese. rector of Comblain-au-Pont, d. Sept. 31, 1943. Always wore on his soutane his decorations of last war, and sang the Magnificat on way to execution. Fr. E. Selman, Malines Diocese, professor in the episcopal college at Anvers, condemned to death for espionage, d.
Nov. 20, 1942. Fr. Thielen, Malines Diocese, Vicar of St. Joseph's, Anvers, d. Nov. 21, 1942. Died in concentration camps: Fr. de Backer, Matinee Diocese, Fr. Froidure, also Malines Diocese. Fr. Magnee. Si.. Prefect of the Jesuit College at Charleroi a.. . AND THESE
The memorandum mentions 13 among numerous priests who were condemned to hard labour in camps ; 8
sent to Dachau concentration camp; 21 given varying terms of imprisonment, including Mgr. van Weyebergh, Rector Magniticus of Louvain University; and 20 others who have been or arc still deatined without trial in a German prison camp, or in the fortress of Huy.
The greater the interference by Germans with Belgian civil and religious rights, more is in consequence the trouble being heaped on the occupiers' heads as the result of a stiffening of Belgian resistance. Even the German Bishops had to warn Hitler about it. They told him on December 18, 1942: " A wall of bitterness and hate is arising around Germany in the occupied territories as the result of the constant attacks by the Nazi Party and the civil administration on the liberty of conscience and religious life of the populace."
Nothing makes Belgians so proud as finding their Bishops identifying themselves with their resistance, so 'be following incident by no means made the occupying task any easier. General Keim sumntoned the Bishop of Liege to hiS Kontmandantur, and the latter sent back this message: "14'e receive callers daffy at our episcopal palace front 10 to 12."
Sauve and polite were the manners of the Germans towards the Belgians from May, 1940 to June, 1942; since then they have been brutal, states the memorandum, which 'shows how at first priests were provided with facilities for getting about at night when duty called, for obtaining special allowances of petrol and other things they specially needed. But from the outset the Belgians were reminded by their Bishops, as in the last war. that the German authority was a de facto one, nevertheless illegitimate. " There must in consequence be no collaboration," they ordered. They were obeyed, and the result was that the Germans turned to rudeness, Reeder (chief of the German civil administration) speaking publicly on June 6. 1943. about what he called the " obscurantism " of the Archbishop of Malines, and the pro' Nazi press, referring to the clergy as " bandits in soutane."
NO SYMPATHY HERE
Readers know how the Germans
tried to get Belgian Catholics to sympathise with their " New Order," but following an allocution by Cardinal Van Roey at Wavre in March, 1942, when he condemned its tenets, action was taken by ecclesiastical leaders, chief chaplains of Action Catholique, the Bishops of Gand and Liege, forwarding precise instuctions to leaders of the various organisations regarding the reserve to be shown by clergy and laity towards the advances of the New Order propagandists.
Belgian collaborationists were quickly rebuffed by all, from the Cardinal to the lowest clergy, and the memorandum recalls various instances of refusal on the part of the clergy to allow churches to be used for ,solemn funerals for collaborationists killed in fighting when such solemnity might imply an identificatioh on the part of the clergy with the aims of the deceased.
The famous Degrelle incident is worth recalling in this connection. It was during the 9 o'clock Mass one Sunday that Fr. Poncelot, distributing Holy Communion, found kneeling before him that famous collaborationist dressed in German uniform. He passed him by. Degrelle then went up to the Dean, asked for Holy Communion, and enquired why he had been passed over. " Bishop's orders," he was told.
Whereupon Degrelle called to two of his men, seized the Dean by the arm, and said: " If you don't communicate me, then you'll communicate nobody else." He compelled the Dean to return the ciborium to the tabernacle, and then locked him up in the sacristy till the end of Mass. The Bishop of Namur reacted by excommunicating Degrelle on the following Sunday.
Points covered by this important memorandum under review, which is unfortunately only as yet available in a French version, include: charitable. educational and spiritual activities of Belgians being carried on despitc the occupation, with particular emphasis on Catholic Action; particulars of men, women and students who have been deported ; and spoliations suffered by the Church, and the activities of the Press and of those engaged in Christian social work.