Clemens von Galen

After his ordination, he first served as vicar of the Münster Cathedral and secretary to his uncle, Auxiliary Bishop Maximilian Gereon von Galen. In 1906, he was sent to Berlin, where he worked for more than twenty years in the Saint Matthias parish in Berlin-Schöneberg, and later at Saint Clement. In 1929, he returned to Münster as pastor of the Saint Lambert parish. On September 5, 1933, he was appointed Bishop of Münster by Pope Pius XI. He chose as his episcopal motto: 'Nec laudibus, nec timore' (Neither by praise, nor by fear). From the beginning of his tenure, Bishop von Galen established himself as a resolute opponent of the ideological excesses of National Socialism, publishing essays refuting Nazi neo-paganism and collaborating in 1937 on the drafting of the encyclical 'Mit brennender Sorge'.

In the summer of 1941, faced with the confiscation of monasteries by the Gestapo and the secret implementation of the Nazi euthanasia program (Aktion T4), Bishop von Galen delivered three resounding sermons in Münster (on July 13, July 20, and August 3, 1941). In them, he publicly denounced the systematic murder of disabled persons and the mentally ill, recalling the divine commandment 'Thou shalt not kill'. Nicknamed the 'Lion of Münster' for his fearlessness, he escaped immediate arrest because the regime feared making him a martyr, even though many of his priests were deported to Dachau. After the war, he continued to defend the rights of his people in the face of the Allied occupying forces.

In recognition of his spiritual resistance, Pope Pius XII raised him to the dignity of cardinal on February 21, 1946. Upon his return to Münster, where he was welcomed triumphantly, he died shortly thereafter of peritonitis on March 22, 1946. He was buried in the Münster Cathedral. The process for his beatification was opened in 1956. On December 20, 2003, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues. He was solemnly beatified on October 9, 2005, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome by Pope Benedict XVI, through the apostolic letter 'Veritatis splendor'.

The legacy of Cardinal Clemens von Galen rests on his prophetic courage and his absolute fidelity to the divine moral law in the face of totalitarian tyranny. His motto 'Nec laudibus, nec timore' summarizes a spirituality rooted in the fear of God rather than that of men. He remains a universal model for the defense of human dignity, freedom of conscience, and the right to life for the most vulnerable in society.