Cardinal Eijk on the courage of answering Nazis' hate with God’s love

Aug 01, 2023

By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Heroic and holy journalist, priest and martyr of the 20th Century, Saint Titus Brandsma, a Dutch Carmelite priest and theologian, combatted Nazism, even until it cost him his life. Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht, Holland, remembers his legacy, killed “in hatred of the faith” in the Dachau concentration camp in 1942, after refusing to publish propaganda, speaking out against Nazi tactics, and opposing anti-Jewish laws they were promulgating. Cardinal Eijk argues Titus is not a saint because he was a martyr, but was a martyr, because he “was already a saint.”

In 1985, Pope St. John Paul II declared Titus Blessed, saying that he “answered hate with love." Pope Francis canonized St. Titus Brandsma in 2022.

In this interview, Cardinal Eijk reflects on Brandsma’s impact, as well as the holy witness of a predecessor Cardinal Archbishop of Utrecht, who, with great love, countered the Nazis’ horrors. He also underscores the value of Pope Francis’ recent establishment of a Vatican Commission to gather the testimonies of all modern Christian martyrs for the faith, within the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, in view of the Jubilee of 2025, with the objective of drawing up a catalogue of all Christians who have shed their blood to confess Christ and bear witness to the Gospel.

The Archbishop of Utrecht also speaks on how regular Catholics, in all vocations, can learn from the martyrs and serve Christ, even as he had done as a physician, prior to his future of service to the Church in Holland.

Regardless of his love for medicine, the Cardinal has no regrets about joining the priesthood, saying, “no one and nothing can remove that inner deep spiritual joy that Lord gave me, and it is anchored at the bottom of my soul.” --Vatican News