schuman 1

Pope Francis has authorized the promulgation [afkondiging] of a Decree advancing the causes for canonization of European statesman Robert Schuman, as well as ten Polish nuns martyred by Soviet troops at the end of World War II. The heroic virtues of a number of other holy men and women were also officially recognized.

 

Robert Schuman [1886-1963] was a French Catholic... 

committed to politics – understood as a mission and a service, and as an act of obedience to God's will – who lived in prayer and was nourished by the daily Eucharist. 

He was arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo from September 14th, 1940, to April 12th, 1941. He managed to escape and lived in hiding until the end of the war, taking refuge mainly in convents and monasteries. 

At the end of the war... 

he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of France in 1945 and 1946. 

As a member of parliament, he took on important roles in the French government: Minister of Finance, Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Justice, becoming a moral point of reference for the country, and working for the creation of a common system of economic and social growth. 

Together with Konrad Adenauer and Alcide De Gasperi, he is considered one of the founding fathers of a united Europe. Their work led to the Treaty of Rome of 25 March 1957, which established the European Economic Community. 

In 1958 he was elected by acclamation as the first President of the new European Parliament. The following year he was struck down by a severe form of cerebral sclerosis. Unable to continue his work, he was appointed honorary president of the European Parliamentary Assembly. 

He died in Scy-Chazelles (France) on 4th September 1963, at the age of 77.

[19.6.21]