Pope in Romania: Martyred bishops gave their lives for fidelity to the Church

Declaring their beatification Sunday in Romania, Pope Francis said seven martyred Greek-Catholic bishops gave their lives for fidelity to the Church and in defense of the right to freedom of religion.

“The new blesseds endured suffering and gave their lives to oppose an illiberal ideological system that oppressed the fundamental rights of the human person,” Pope Francis said June 2, during a Greek-Catholic Divine Liturgy in the “Field of Freedom,” in Blaj, Romania.

“These pastors, martyrs for the faith,” he emphasized, “re-appropriated and handed down to the Romanian people a precious legacy that we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy.”