Gojdic Pavel

Gojdic, Pavel Bishop Pavel Gojdic was appointed administrator of the Greek Catholic Diocese in Prešov region in 1927. Believers under his administration were composed of four different nationalities: Slovak, Rusyn, Ukrainian and Hungarian. There were also a few Russian Orthodox inhabitants under his jurisdiction. His efforts to minimize their differences and emphasize their unifying factors were cut short by Slovak nationalism, which led to Slovak autonomy in October 1938 and later to the independent Slovak State in March 1939. This nationalist movement also influenced Slovak priests in his diocese, and Gojdic's activities were not well received by the fascist state. Nevertheless, from the very beginning of their persecution in Slovakia Gojdic spoke up openly in favor of Jews. On January 25, 1939, two days after the establishment of a special committee by the Slovak autonomist government charged with defining the "Program for the Solution of the Jewish Question," the bishop wrote a letter addressed to all parishes in his Prešov diocese. In the letter, he predicted disastrous results caused by these discriminative policies. He reminded people of the basic principles of their belief – that every human is equal in the eyes of God. He also warned of the consequences of Nazi ideology and racism. Gojdic's view caused turmoil among Slovak priests, who for the most part sympathized with the nationalist stream in the Catholic Church. In the summer of 1939, they wrote a memorandum expressing their dissatisfaction with Gojdic's actions, causing his resignation that November. The Holy See accepted his resignation from the position of apostolic administrator, but at the same time appointed him as Bishop of the Prešov diocese. This appointment only increased the tension between Gojdic and the Slovak government. After the Slovak parliament confirmed a special law permitting the expulsion of Jews from Slovakia, Gojdic wrote a protest against the cruel deportations ofSlovak Jewry, which were being carried out by the clerical Hlinka party. He also asked the Vatican to intervene and force Tiso, the Slovak head of State and a Catholic priest, to put an end to these acts of cruelty. If the Holy See was not be able to stop the deportations, Gojdic argued, the Vatican should at least insist on Tiso's resignation, so that the Catholic Church may separate itself from these criminal activities. The protest was handed to Giuseppe Burzio, the Vatican representative in Slovakia, to deliver to the Holy See. (This letter was published after the war in a volume of selected Vatican documents.) Unfortunately, all the protests and interventions addressed to the Vatican failed to prevent the deportations of Jews from Slovakia, nor did they manage to compel Tiso to defend Slovak Jewry. On October 26, 1942, Slovak security services informed the Ministry of the Interior of a high number of fictitious conversions taking place. The report pointed out several cases where only one member of a Jewish family converted to Christianity in order to protect all the other members. Out of 249 Jewish families, 533 Jews had converted to the Greek Catholic or Russian Orthodox faith in order to rescue some 1500 other members of their families, who had not converted. Moreover, most of those who had converted continued to actively practice Judaism either in the open or under cover. According to the security service report, Gojdic had held a conversion ceremony in the town of Michalovce, where the bishop publicly kissed the foreheads of those Jews who decided to convert. Many of the old members of the Catholic Church left the church in protest of the bishop's gesture. After the end of hostilities, those who had been saved by Gojdic foresaw that his wartime actions would not be well received by the Communist regime and offered to help him immigrate to the West. However, Gojdic refused to leave his post as bishop. He was prosecuted, and sentenced to many years inprison. Jewish witnesses wrote a letter in his defense to the then president of Czechoslovakia Antonín Zápotocký – but in vain. On November 4, 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified Bishop Gojdic, honoring his lifelong behavior, and stating that even during crucial moments of his life he remained loyal to the principles of the Greek Catholic Church as well as the Apostolic See in Rome. On 6 August 2007, Pavel Gojdic was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.