Vatican beatifies Slovenian student killed by communists during WWII
A Slovenian student who was captured, tortured and killed by communists during World War II was beatified on Sunday by Pope Benedict XVI's state secretary at a Mass attended by thousands.
Lojze Grozde, who died at the age of 20, is the first beatified martyr in the predominantly Roman Catholic country where the church was long suppressed.
Grozde, a high school student, was captured in Jan. 1943, when Slovenia was occupied by Italy and Germany. Communist-run antifascist rebels — known as partisans — reportedly found a Latin prayer book in his possession and suspected him of collaborating with Italian fascists. His mutilated body was found a month later in a forest....
Read entire article at AP
Lojze Grozde, who died at the age of 20, is the first beatified martyr in the predominantly Roman Catholic country where the church was long suppressed.
Grozde, a high school student, was captured in Jan. 1943, when Slovenia was occupied by Italy and Germany. Communist-run antifascist rebels — known as partisans — reportedly found a Latin prayer book in his possession and suspected him of collaborating with Italian fascists. His mutilated body was found a month later in a forest....