(ANS – Budapest) – Friday 22 February, in the year of the centenary of the Salesian presence in Hungary and on the 60th anniversary of the martyrdom of Salesian Brother Stephen Sándor, Salesians in the Hungarian Province and the administration of the Museum of Terror, in Budapest organised a symposium and a day of commemoration dedicated to this Salesian martyr, who cause for beatification is already at an advanced stage.

The event took place at the Museum of Terror in Budapest, where besides holding various 'relics' of the Communist regime, the place itself is where the Secret Police tortured thousands of people, amongst whom Cardinal József Mindszenty and Stephen Sándor himself.

The director of the Museum, Mrs Maria Schmidt , opened the symposium with a few words in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio in Hungary, Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, and other civil and church authorities. She accurately laid out the circumstances of persecution of priests and religious by the regime from 1940-1960. Fr Bela Abraham, Provincial, then invited participants to keep their memory of the past as an aid to live each day and to avoid the same errors being repeated in the future. There was also time in the first part of the symposium to present a film on the life of Stephen Sándor, with Andras Der as its producer.

Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General for the Causes of Saints in the Salesian Family then spoke. He traced the path that the Cause of Beatification of the Salesian martyr has already accomplished and invited everyone to seek his intercession in prayer.

A the end of his report Fr Cameroni, Frs Jozsef Havasi and Lorant Biro, who knew Stephen Sándor and had met him a few days before he was arrested, left their testimony of their encounter with the Servant of  God.

Published 25/02/2013