Trial of the Moscow Martyrs

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 23, 14 June 1923, Page 15

Trial of the Moscow Martyrs

Graphic Story of Eye=witness As Russian correspondent of the New York Herald, Mr. Frank McCullagh was present at the so-called trial of* Archbishop Cieplak, Monsignor Budkievitch,' and .1.7 priests. He says: I do not describe from hearsay. I attended every sitting from the first day to the last, sometimes going without food or sleep in order to do so and send telegraphic accounts afterward. 'Whether any of these telegrams ever reached my paper is for my editor to say. (They did not — TheNew York Herald.) ' ■ The Bolshevist Foreign Office at first refused tickets for the trial to all correspondents, though they were ready enough to supply admission cards to Red army parades and Bolshevist meetings, but being an old hand in journalism, I got in. Later on other correspondents obtained admission. I. should also say I am personally acquainted with none of the prisoners, and I do not know a single Pole in Moscow. For the last two years the Polish policy has been antipathetic to me, and I have never called on Polish representatives here or got a single scrap of information from Polish sources directly or indirectly. For the Polish priests put on trial here 1 had no personal feeling, and I should not have hesitated to denounce these priests Vf it had been proven to my satisfaction they had plotted against the Soviet Government on behalf of Poland. But, having carefully listened to all the evidence, I am convinced these Petrograd priests never engaged in any plot against the Soviet Government. Their persecution was on religious grounds alone. It is the first item in a programme for the destruction of Christianity in Russia. ;: The Crime of Teaching Catechism. Krylenko, who conducted the prosecution, and Gelkin, the presiding judge, a renegade priest, made this perfectly clear. They asked every one of the clerical prisoners

whether they had taught the Catechism to children, and every prisoner answered yes.

They then read the Bolshevist law, which makes it a, crime to impart religious teachings to any under 18 years old, and asked each prisoner if he would continue to teach the Catechism. The reply in every case was yes, always delivered in a firm tone, and sometimes accompanied by a smile— a smile of pity, I fancy, for the ignorance of a man who would ask such a question of priests who had remained with their flock in Petrograd during the last five years of terror. »

The Archbishop's face lit with pleasure and surprise when he answered. Behind the prelate sat the young priest, Edward Yunevitch, newly-ordained, as one could see from his tonsure, not yet covered by his hair. Joy flashed in his eyes and irradiated his whole countenance when asked if, in obedience with the Bolshevist law, he would cease teaching children their Catechism. Joyousness so marked his voice in his "No" that the three Bolshevist judges, who were all smoking cigarettes at the time, looked up simultaneously in surprise. The Crime of Saying Mass. The priests were next asked if, after the churches had been closed, they dared disobey the Bolshevist law by saying Mass. Yes, of course, they all said Mass. Not only did they own up to the crime, but admitted there was always a congregation of about 150 to 200.

They used empty halls for the purpose. Petrograd is half 'empty, and there are many halls and suites of rooms available for such ceremonies, though in the winter time the cold in these unheated rooms must have been murderous.

And, to the surprise of the Red judges, they would not promise to cease saying Mass. This case, however, does not concern Catholics alone. It concerns all religions, including the Jews. It is a crime under the Bolshevist law to impart religious teaching to any person under the age of 18 years, even though the teacher be the mother and the pupil her child.

The trial, as I have shown, was a religious trial, and not a political one, though the prosecutor tried hard to make out it was political. The papers seized at the house of Father Budkievitch, where they were found in an open drawer, concerned discussions held at various times by tho clergy with regard to questions which the clergy were bound to discuss: What attitude they should take toward the new divorce law; the law separating Church and State; the law separating Church and school, and various innumerable crazy decrees which the Soviet Government had poured forth at the rate of ten per day.

Prosecutor Krylenko made clear that any men who meet together to discuss in a critical spirit the decrees of the Soviet Government are counter-revolutionaries, and, as a matter of fact, he is right. Such, is the law of the Soviet, and the scoher English and American concessionaires know that the better. The reading of the death sentences was begun on the stroke of midnight of Palm Sunday. The audience throughout was largely composed of Communists. Bloodthirsty Prosecutor. Of all the bloodthirsty, wild beasts I have ever set eyes on, Krylenko is the worst. Ido not refer to his personal appearance, which is that of a nimble, dapper, little man of about 40, with a pugnacious face and small moustache.

His smile, when first I saw it, seemed to mo not unpleasant, but now I see it at night, see it as it looked when he was gloating over innocent men whom he had condemned to death. The public prosecutor, in any country where there is such a. functionary, is quite right in asking with firmness for the punishment of the guilty; but Krylenko's thirst for the death sentence transcended all limits. He raged like a wild animal stinted in its allowance of blood, and devoured in consequence by a raging thirst. And he must have known, for he is an educated man, that he had not proved his case. The Judges. I have spoken of the procurer. The judges were wor, thy of him. They grinned knowingly at him, and lie at them, throughout the entire trial. They showed the grossest kind of favoritism. They showed it on. the very first day, when the defence raised the question of procedure.

Seme of the incidents were of the flimsiest character. Take the case of the priest who fell "demonstratively" upon his knees when a couple, of Red hooligans entered his church after Mass and ordered tho congregation out of it. The priest was nearly blind, as was obvious to every one in court who watched his movements during the trial. He had not seen the intruders, and simply knelt before the Blessed Sacrament after he had finished Mass. , But Krylenko insisted that his action in falling upon his knees was an appeal to the religious fanaticism of his parishioners, and therefore punishable under an article in the Bolshevist penal code. That priest was condemned to serve ten years in prison. The Audience: The audience was worthy of the judges and the procurer —at least the Communist portion of it. It actually applauded when Krylenko, writhing and frothing at the mouth like a madman, made his second and more frightful demand for the lives of six of the prisoners, and the presiding judge did not attempt to quiet the audience. One unshaven, bestial looking visage in front of me T shall never forget. During all the time the prisoners were pleading lor their lives that abominable face was set in a perpetual grin, with mouth open. Worst of all, it swung around at intervals and fixed its bloodshot eyes on me, as if insisting upon an answering sympathetic laugh. The Prisoners. And the prisoners: how did they bear themselves under tho ordealP It reassured my faith in human nature that in these days of disillusion, depression, and doubt men could rise to such heights. Never once did they falter. Not an inch did they yield. No Christian martyrs ever bore themselves more nobly before the tribunal of Nero.

At the beginning of the trial Archbishop Cieplak looked feeble and worn, as well he might, for he is near 70, and he was brought every day from the filthy Butyrka prison in a patrol waggon of the cheka. But when ho heard Krylenko demand the death penalty he seemed rejuvenated. His color rose, his eye brightened, his tall figure straightened, and, in his l#ng black cassock fastened at the waist, by a broad red sash, he looked what he was— a prince of the Church," head of all Russian Catholics from the Baltic, to the Pacific, from the frozen sea to the frontiers of India.When called upon to say his last words, the Archbishop rose to his full height and delivered an address so touching and so simple that a profound hush, with something of awe in it, settled down upon that hostile audience of Red soldiers, atheists, sneerers, and demoralised students. So great was the effect on myself that I could not put pen to paper. - *• • The Archbishop's Address. The few words of that speech from the dock which remain in my mind are, hut a faint reflection of what he really said. The Archbishop denied, as did all those who spoke after him, that he had belonged to any political organisation, or had engaged in any counter-revolutionary intrigues. He had, on the contrary, confined himself to teaching his people the truths of their holy religion, those same truths which the Church had taught for nearly 2000 years. The Church had never taught the people to do wrong, he said, and he had never aught wrongdoing. He had never taught anything thai did not tend to good morals and'good citizenship. It had been his duty as the head of the Catholic Church in Russia to set a good example to the priests under him and to the (lock entrusted to his care. "To-day, concluded the Archbishop, "I stand before a temporal judge ; to-morrow maybe I shall stand before an eternal judge, and I hope the temporal judge may be just fo me and the eternal judge merciful." A Young Priest Speaks. A great speech was made by Edward Yunevitch, the young priest already described'. His bright eyes seemed fixed. He described how, as a student, he heard in Petrograd the shots announcing the fall of Czardom. He had rejoiced, fo?r Czardom had been the enemy of Catholicism in Russia. Young as he was. he knew of the persecution of friends who had been sent by hundreds to prison and Siberia because of their faith. But he saw Bolshevism as a \ worse enemy than Czardom. • It realised none of its expectations; it gave none of

the liberty it had promised. The people of Petrograd were now weeping and miserable. What were tho poor Catholics of Petrograd to do if their priests did not return to them? This naive question excited bitter mirth among tho hardened Communists who filled the courts, and the judge asked not unkindly that he might leave, tho question of Petrograd alone, and confine himself to the charges against him personally. The prisoner apologised for being carried away, but said he thought he would be allowed to say everything, as these were the last words he would say. Ho ended with Christ's last words on the Cross: "Not My will, but Thine, be done." Dramatic Ending. The proceeding ended among the most dramatic cir- < cumstances. A witness, Smirnoff, had • testified that the priest had celebrated Mass after he had cleared their churches and notified them they must not carry on public worship until they had received permission from tho Soviet Government. Gelkin, the presiding judge, asked the prisoners if this was so, and they admitted it was. "Now you must choose once and for all," yelled a. savage-faced* ex-priest on the scarlet bench. "Are you going to continue saying Mass?" It was a tense, dramatic moment. Each priest was questioned in turn. Each stood \tp and declared calmly, firmly, and proudly that he would continue to say Mass and teach children the Catechism, no matter what the consequences to himself. ,' The judge savagely questioned one young man who had been ordained in 1914 when 23 years old. "Do you toach children their Catechism?" "Yes." . "Do you know that under Article 121 of the PenalCode it is a crime to teach children the Catechism, and that religion must be taught to no one before he is 18 years old?" "Yes. I know that." , "And will you continue the Catechism y ' / "Yes. with God's help. I will. It is my duty to do so, no matter what the consequences may be. If a father asks me to teach his child the Catechism I cannot refuse." Gelkin, himself a renegade priest, scowled darkly. He had selected the youngest priest, thinking he would yield and practically abjure his faith, but he found himself struggling against a rock. Rome or Red Russia: Which "Rome teaches you this," yelled Gelkin, "and Soviet Russia teaches the contrary. Which will you choose, Rome or Red Russia?" In tho deep silence that followed, the voice of the young priest rang out like the voice of an early Christian in the Flavian amphitheatre: "Rome," he said with a smile. v And the electric light overhead shone upon a face that might have been the model for the great medieval picture of St. Sebastian in the National Gallery in London. The death sentence on the Archbishop and the VicarGeneral were pronounced at midnight on Palm Sunday. The Archbishop Budkievitch looked as men who had obtained their lifelong heart's desire. The Archbishop embraced his aged, white-bearded lawyer, who, though of the Orthodox Church and not a Catholic, broke down and wept bitterly. Then the Archbishop embraced all the clergy, ■and all were removed under a heavily-armed escort of Reds. Meanwhile there was a frightful scene in court, when many Polish women fainted; others had hysterics, and screaming fell to the" floor, to be roughly dragged out by Red soldiers. Since I wrote the above the Archbishop has been reprieved. Nevertheless, the civilised world should know of tlya scenes whereby Soviet Russia panders to the bloodthirsty men who alone keep it in power. The above account of the priests' trial is not second-hand information, but comes from one who, as the Bolsheviki knew, attended every sitting of the. court.

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