Cardinal Iuliu Hossu (1885-1970) was a “symbol of fraternity transcending all ethnic and religious boundaries,” Pope Leo XIV said during a ceremony held in the late afternoon of June 2, 2025, in the Sistine Chapel.
Pope Paul VI named Bishop Iuliu Hossu a cardinal because of his fidelity to the Church despite persecution, but did so in secret to avoid endangering him more.
This Romanian bishop was created cardinal in pectore by Paul VI in 1969, and died in prison the following year. He was a leading figure in the resistance to Nazism and communism.
Cardinal Hossu was beatified by Pope Francis during his visit to Romania in 2019, along with six other bishops who were martyred under the communist regime.
Leo XIV recalled that Paul VI secretly created Bishop Iuliu Hossu a cardinal on April 28, 1969, “while he was in prison for remaining faithful to the Church of Rome.”
It wasn’t until 1973, three years after his death, that Paul VI revealed his creation as cardinal. Although he died of old age, he’s considered a martyr, given the link between his death and the ill-treatment he suffered in prison.
A ministry marked by persecution
The Greek Catholic bishop of Gherla from 1917 to 1970 had a turbulent episcopate, marked by two experiences of resistance to totalitarianism.
The Pope recalled that Cardinal Iuliu Hossu first took on a “courageous commitment to supporting and saving the Jews of Northern Transylvania when, between 1940 and 1944, the Nazis were carrying out their heinous plan of deporting them to extermination camps.”
“At enormous risk to himself and to the Greek-Catholic Church, Blessed Hossu undertook extensive activities on behalf of the Jews aimed at preventing their deportation,” recalled Leo XIV.
The relief work he requested of his faithful in his Pastoral Letter of April 2, 1944, saved thousands of Jews. For this reason, a process began in 2022 to recognize him as “Righteous Among the Nations.”
“Our faith is our life”
“The hope shown by this great Pastor was that of a man of faith, who knows that the gates of evil will not prevail against God’s work,” explained Leo XIV.
He went on to recall how Pope Francis quoted Cardinal Hossu during the beatification Mass on June 2, 2019, in Blaj, in central Romania:
“God has sent us into this darkness of suffering in order to offer forgiveness and to pray for the conversion of all.”
Leo XIV emphasized that these words “embody the spirit of the martyrs: an unshakeable faith in God, devoid of hatred and coupled with a spirit of mercy that turns suffering into love for one’s persecutor.”
Cardinal Hossu then suffered under the communist regime for more than 20 years in prison and then under house arrest. His testimony is still today “a prophetic invitation to overcome hatred through forgiveness and to live one’s faith with dignity and courage,” the Pope explained.
Leo XIV emphasized that the episcopal motto of the first cardinal in Romanian history – “Our faith is our life” – should be “the motto of each one of us.”
“Let us say ‘No!’ to violence in all its forms, and even more so when it is perpetrated against those who are defenseless and vulnerable, like children and families,” he said.
Cardinal Mureșan, a living witness to the years of persecution
The president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, Silviu Vexler, attended the ceremony. Bishop Cristian Crișan, bishop of the Major Archiepiscopal Curia, read a message from the Major Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania, Cardinal Lucian Mureșan.
The Romanian celebrated his 94th birthday and is the oldest cardinal still serving in a diocese.
“I can affirm that Iuliu Hossu was above all a man of God, who left us as his legacy his uninterrupted struggle for Truth and Justice,” Cardinal Mureșan said in his message.
He added that as a young priest he had been able to visit him during his house arrest. He concluded by quoting the last words of the blessed martyr before he died: “My struggle is over! Yours continues! Carry it on to the end!”
Trained for the priesthood in secret at the suggestion of Cardinal Hossu and ordained a priest in 1964, Cardinal Lucian Mureșan, who also worked for several decades in mines and then on roads, is himself one of the last survivors of this generation marked by persecution under the communist regime.
