Courageous Catholic bishop to be beatified for speaking out against Hitler regime

Pope John Paul II will soon beatify a former bishop of Münster (western Germany) who courted death by preaching openly from the pulpit against the Nazis. Clemens August Count von Galen (1878-1946) incurred the rage of Hitler and his cohorts with courageous denunciations during World War II of the secret policy of taking mentally handicapped victims into custody and putting them to death. When Galen preached against the Nazis' euthanasia program, worshippers secretly wrote down his sermons and the anti-Nazi resistance smuggled them abroad. They were later broadcast to Germany by the German service of the BBC. The Vatican's congregation in charge of beatifications and canonizations has been able to attribute a miracle to the prelate: the healing of a young boy he mentioned in his prayers. A miracle is a prerequisite for beatification.