On the 30th of January 2002, the Catholics Bishops' Conference of the Russian Federation approved a program for preparation of the beatification process of the Twentieth Century Newmartyrs of Russia. Fr. Bronislaw Czaplicki has been appointed program coordinator.

The 20th century brought much suffering to the Church in Russia and to the rest of the former Soviet Union. Many Christians, among them many Catholics, underwent persecution and death for the faith. Many of them gave the Church and the entire world a shining witness of the Gospel Truth and a model of genuine faithfulness to God, even before the face of death itself. There can be no doubt that their example of heroic faith has a great importance for all the Church, particularly under the conditions of today.

The task before the program at this stage is to establish the possible candidates for beatification, to gather the documents which have survived, and information and testimonials about their lives and deaths, as well as the facts about private devotion to them on the part of the faithful both in Russia and other countries. The additional task is to spread more information about the candidates.

The martyrs of Twentieth Century have already been beatified in Belarus and Ukraine. Among the Newmartyrs of Ukraine was Blessed Leonid Feodorov, a Russian who was so closely tied to Russia.

Monsignor Bronislaw Czaplicki, who is responsible for carrying out the program, has devoted many years to the study of the persecutions which the Church suffered in the USSR. Among his accomplishments is the collecting of information about the Newmartyrs of Russia for the Vatican's program "New Martyrs", carried out in the course of preparation for the celebration of the Great Jubilee 2000. He also directed the edition of the Martyrology of the Catholic Church in USSR, in which are published biographies of the hundreds of the Catholics in the former Soviet Union who suffered persecution for their religion.

March 30th, 2002

It's obligatory to refer to Catholic Newmartyrs of Russia web-site, when reprinting.