Commemoration service for Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter

Bruce Kent, Valerie Flessati at a Jaegerstaetter service

Source: Pax Christi

The annual ecumenical service to remember Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter, executed in 1945 for refusing to serve in Hitler's army, will be held in the crypt of Westminster Cathedral at 6.30pm on Thursday 9 August. Entry is via the car park in Ambrosden Avenue. It is organised by Pax Christi.

The speaker is Dr Ray Towey who has worked as a medical missionary in Uganda and who is also a peace activist, regularly witnessing at the Ministry of Defence against nuclear weapons. Following visits to St Radegund in Austria, he initiated the first Franz Jaegerstaetter Service in the Westminster Cathedral Crypt in 1989.

The service will be followed by the annual inter-faith walk to Battersea Peace Pagoda for Nagasaki Day Commemorations.

Franz was a sacristan in the church of St Radegund, a tiny Austrian village, just north of Salzburg and beside the Salzach river which separates Austria from Germany. His ashes are buried there. Franz was the only person in his village who voted against the Nazi take-over of Austria in 1938. By 1943 he decided it would be impossible for him to fight with the Nazis, to obey a dictator who, in his words, was 'gobbling up' other countries and killing so many people. He consulted parish clergy and the local bishop - all of whom advised him to compromise and fight like everyone else. Knowing that refusal meant the death penalty, his relations and friends tried to dissuade him. His wife Franziska alone supported Franz to the end, despite having small children. He was finally condemned to death in July and then beheaded in Brandenburg prison on 9 August 1943.

Since then the heroism of Franz - and Franziska - has been recognised by Church and State. People now come to St Radegund from all over the world to honour the man who had the courage to say NO. Ten years ago, in 2007, Franz was beatified as a Christian martyr at a celebration in Linz cathedral in the presence of his widow, all his four daughters, and his grandchildren.

Also, Pax Christi will be running a stall outside Westminster Cathedral on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days 6 and 9 August. Prayers at 11.30 and 3.30pm.

www.paxchristi.org.uk