Clemens August Graf von Galen
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The Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen |
|
|---|---|
| Bishop of Münster | |
Cardinal von Galen
|
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| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Diocese of Münster |
| Appointed | 5 September 1933 |
| Term ended | 22 March 1946 |
| Predecessor | Johannes Poggenburg |
| Successor | Michael Keller |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 28 May 1904 by Hermann Dingelstadt |
| Consecration | 28 October 1933 by Karl Joseph Schulte |
| Created Cardinal | 21 February 1946 by Pope Pius XII |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Clemens August Graf von Galen |
| Born |
16 March 1878 Dinklage Castle, Dinklage, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, German Empire |
| Died | 22 March 1946 (aged 68) Münster, Province of Westphalia, Allied-occupied Germany |
| Buried | Münster Cathedral |
| Nationality | German |
| Motto | Nec laudibus nec timore (neither by flattery nor by fear) |
| Coat of arms |  |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 22 March |
| Beatified | 9 October 2005 Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI |
The Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen (16 March 1878 – 22 March 1946) was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. During World War II, Galen led Catholic protest against Nazi euthanasia and denounced Gestapo lawlessness and the persecution of the church. He was appointed a Cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
Born into the German aristocracy, Galen received part of his education in Austria from the Jesuits at the Stella Matutina School in the town of Feldkirch, on the Austrian border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. After his ordination he worked in Berlin at Saint Matthias. He intensely disliked the liberal values of the Weimar Republic and opposed individualism, socialism, and democracy. After serving in Berlin parishes from 1906 to 1929, he became the pastor of Münster's St. Lamberti Church, where he was noted for his political conservatism. A staunch German nationalist and patriot, he considered the Treaty of Versailles unjust and viewed Bolshevism as a threat to Germany and the Church. He espoused the stab-in-the-back theory: that the German military was defeated in 1918 only because it had been undermined by defeatist elements on the home front. He expressed his opposition to modernity in his book Die Pest des Laizismus und ihre Erscheinungsformen (The Plague of Laicism and its Forms of Expression) (1932).
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