Jusztinián György Serédi

Styles of
Jusztinian György Seredi
Reference style His Eminence
Spoken style Your Eminence
Informal style Cardinal
See Esztergom

Jusztinián György Serédi OSB (23 April 1884 - 29 March 1945) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary.

Jusztinián György Serédi was born in Deáki, Hungary (now Diakovce, Slovakia). He joined the Order of Saint Benedict on 6 August 1901, Pannonhalma. He was professed on July 10, 1905. He was ordained on 14 July 1908. He was a member of the community of the abbey of Pannonhalma and faculty member of the International College S. Anselmo, Rome. He was procurator general of his order in Rome.

Contents

Episcopate

Pope Pius XI appointed him Archbishop of Esztergom on 30 November 1927. He was consecrated on 8 January 1928 in the Sistine chapel by Pope Pius.

Cardinalate

He was created and proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio in the consistory of December 19, 1927. He was a senator in the parliament of Hungary by his own right. He participated in the conclave of 1939 that elected Pope Pius XII. He died in 1945 while still in office.

Opposition to Nazis

In 1934 Serédi issued a statement saying no Catholic priest could support the principles of Nazism. In 1938 Serédi hosted an Ecumenical Congress along with the future Pius XII.[1]

In the spring of 1944 he issued a statement condemning the attacks on, discrimination against and deportation of the Jews on racial grounds.[2] Serédi also worked to try to get Catholic Jews exempted from deportation and death, but was only able to get the rule to apply to those who were priests, monks or nuns.[3] In April 1944 Serédi protested the treatment of Jews by the Nazis in Hungary.[4] On the other had, he did not make any public condemnation available to Catholics inside Hungary against the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. On June 29, 1944, he decided against issuing a pastoral letter clarifying the view of the church on this issue.

Serédi's leading the Hungarian church in opposition to the attack on the Jews led to the arrest of two bishops and several priests and nuns. One of the bishops arrested by the Nazis was József Mindszenty.[5]

Sources

  1. ^ "Eucharist in Budapest". Time Magazine. 1938-06-06. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,771110,00.html. Retrieved 2008-08-10. 
  2. ^ Goldhagen v. Pius XII at www.catholiceducation.org
  3. ^ Bartov, Omer. In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century. p. 233-234
  4. ^ "Cardinal Appeals for Jews" in New York Times, April 27th, 1944, p. 5
  5. ^ Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission | June 2003 | Articles | It Was Cold, by Martin Mazloom at www.losangelesmission.com
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
János Csernoch		 Archbishop of Esztergom
30 November 1927–29 March 1945		 Succeeded by
József Mindszenty