Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, returned to his native Czech Republic to celebrate the June 6 Mass of beatification of Fathers Jan Bula and Václav Drbola.
Father Drbola was martyred in 1952, and Father Bula in 1951, under the Czechoslovakian Communist regime.
“Blessed Jan and Václav call us not to sell truth for comfort or to avoid conflict, not to exchange faith for the approval of others, not to choose silence where witness should be given, not to sacrifice conscience for comfort, career, or conformism,” said Cardinal Czerny, whose family fled Czechoslovakia for Canada when he was an infant.