Picture source
Brother John M. Samaha,
S.M.
Blessed
Jacob Gapp, S.M., may well be considered another patron of the Catholic press
as well as a patron of justice and peace advocates. Because the Gestapo condemned him for his unwavering adherence to the Catholic faith and
his unabashed denunciation of National Socialism (Nazism), Father Jacob Gapp
was guillotined by the Nazis in Berlin at the Ploetzensee Prison on August 13,
1943. Pope John Paul II beatified him
in1996.
Before
entering the Society of Mary in his native Austria, this intrepid Marianist
priest had served in the Austrian army in World War I, was wounded and
decorated for valor, and suffered as a prisoner of war in northern Italy. This experience taught him to loathe war,
selfishness and greed, arrogant pride, political and social injustice. As a young Marianist religious and teacher of
religion he was unstinting as a militant advocate for the poor, the needy, and
the oppressed.
This
action made Father Gapp a serious irritant to the Nazis after they annexed
Austria in 1938. For his own safety and
for the welfare of the Marianist school where he was teaching in Graz, his
superiors moved him from place to place for parish work. The Nazi regime forbade him to teach. Some pupils in the Tyrol told a school
inspector in October 1938 that Father Gapp explained to them the Gospel message
of brotherly love and their obligation to love and respect “Frenchmen, Czechs,
Jews, and communists alike, as they were all human beings.” He insisted, “God is your God, not Adolf
Hitler.”
Realizing
that the spoken word and the printed word clearly possessed a power lacking in
the sword of militarism, he employed the Catholic press as a weapon of
choice. And he read avidly to study the
thorny problem of National Socialism and all its ramifications.
Imbued
with the message of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge and the statements of the Austrian bishops,
Jacob Gapp had formed a lucid and sound judgment about the utter incompatibility
of National Socialism and Christianity.
In his preaching he emphasized this truth fearlessly, and he taught the
uncompromising law of love for all people without reference to nationality or
religion.
In
a fateful sermon in his home parish of St. Lawrence at Wattens in the Tyrol on
December 11, 1938, this seasoned Marianist priest staunchly defended Pope Pius
XI against the attacks of the Nazis, knowing that his words were being
monitored by the Gestapo. He urged the
faithful to read Catholic literature rather than Nazi propaganda, and to follow
the lead of the Catholic press. This
bold move forced him to leave his native country and escape to France. A few months later his anti-Nazi audacity
required that he flee Bordeaux and enter Spain, where he assisted in
several schools and parishes served by the
Marianists. He was adamant in his rejection of the Nazi
diatribe. His zeal for the cause he so
fervently espoused was not diminished.
In
the summer of 1942 the beleaguered Father Jacob Gapp visited the British
consulate in Valencia to inquire about a visa to England. He also wanted to learn what was really
happening in Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe, especially concerning the
Church. The consulate staff gave him a
stack of newspapers and magazines.
Among them were copies of The
Tablet, a weekly journal edited by Catholic laity in London. The
Tablet provided reports about the persecution of the Church, internment
camps, pastoral letters like that of the Bishop of Calahorra in Spain
criticizing the Nazi ideology, and objective reports from the war fronts. Shunning the biased propaganda material,
Father Jacob began to distribute The Tablet, returning regularly to the
consulate for new copies.
Shadowed
by the Nazis over the years, he was arrested through a deceptive trap that
lured him across the border into occupied France, where the Gestapo arrested
him and hustled him to prison in Berlin. He was deceived by a certain Father Lange, a
German priest in whom he had confided, but who was secretly a Gestapo agent. In
January 1943, for two long and intense days he was interrogated nonstop by the
Gestapo. Jacob Gapp welcomed the
opportunity to present his case. The
Gestapo interrogators were particularly interested in his visits to the British
consulate in Valencia, and in the “subversive propaganda against the
Fatherland” he had repeatedly collected there and distributed. Calmly and firmly the prisoner explained that
The Tablet was not propaganda: “It is
a good, Catholic journal. The writing is
sound, and I even intended to subscribe.”
Willingly
and vigorously the martyr-to-be not only admitted he consistently opposed the
Nazi regime and all it represented, but explained when and why he had done
so. He virtually flew in the face of the
interrogators. His reasoning and candor
stunned the Nazi agents. First and
foremost he was a Marianist religious and Catholic priest, conscience-bound to
place God before Caesar. Since the Nazis
were bent on destroying the Church, he was convinced it was his duty to blaze a
trail of resistance and opposition, to educate with truth, and to be a role
model of fidelity.
For
his honesty and integrity Father Jacob Gapp was sentenced to death for treason
and guillotined. His body was destroyed
because the Gestapo feared the people would revere him as a martyr. Reportedly Heinrich Himmler, the cunning manipulator
of the Nazi leadership, expressed the opinion that Germany would win World War II without difficulty if there were a
million party members as committed as Jacob Gapp. Even the enemy admired his tenacious and
unstinting adherence to conviction.
Today
we honor Blessed Jacob Gapp as a modern-day champion of the Catholic press,
which strives to be a source of truthful reporting. Because he respected the Catholic
press as the vehicle the Church employs to reveal the Good News for our day, we
are invited to call on him to help us to appreciate and promote a more
effective Catholic press – print and electronic -- with a wider readership, and
to use the Catholic press as he did for the cause of truth and justice.
As
the Church regards St. Francis de Sales as patron of the Catholic press, who
intercedes for writers and publishers, we can call on Blessed Jacob Gapp as a
patron for readers of the Catholic press. We can request him to assist all who
turn to the Catholic press for a reliable source of information.
