French YCW and YCS leaders to be beatified

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints has recognised the martyrdom of more than twenty French YCW lay leaders as well as chaplains and seminarians linked to the movement.

Pope Leo XIV approved the decree, which also recognised the martyrdom of many more French lay leaders and priests from other movements including the Scouts, and the Young Christian Students (YCS).

Australian Cardijn Institute secretary, Stefan Gigacz, welcomed the announcement.

“It’s a tremendous acknowledgment by the Church of the extraordinary sacrifice of so many French YCW leaders, seminarians and chaplains,” he said. “And it comes at providential moment being the year of the centenary of the movement’s official foundation in Belgium in 1925.

“Let’s also remember that, as well as the French jocist martyrs, there were many more YCW and YCS martyrs from other countries during the Second World War, including Belgian lay co-founders, Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet, as well as Hungarian Blessed Sister Sara Salkahazi,” Dr Gigacz added.

“YCW founder, Joseph Cardijn, once stated that one hundred Belgian YCW leaders and chaplains had lost their lives in concentration camps or been executed for their apostolic activities during the war.

“Much more of this remarkable history remains to be written,” he noted.

Lay YCW leaders on the Vatican list were:

Jean Lépicier (1921-1945), died at Buchenwald;

Bernard Lemaire (1920-1944), died of typhus at Buchenwald;

Maurice Grandet (1920-1944), died of typhus at Buchenwald;

René Ponsin (1923-1945), died at Buchenwald; Claude-Colbert Lebeau (1922-1945), died at Zöschen;

Jean Chavet (1922-1945), died of typhus at Mauthausen;

André Parsy (1922-1944), interned at Zöschen, died at Trebitz;

André Vallée (1919-1945), died at Flossenbürg;

Henri Marrannes (1923-1945), died in Zwickau;

Louis Pourtois (1919-1945), died in Mauthausen; Camille Millet (1922-1945), died in Flossenbürg;

Marcel Carrier (1922-1945), died in Neustadt during the “death march”;

Alfredo Dall’Oglio (1921-1944), Italian naturalized French, died in Wuhlheide; Marcel Touquet (1914-1945), died in Ravensbrück;

Lucien Croci (1919-1945), died in Barth;

Jean Mestre (1924-1944), died shortly after his arrest;

Jean Perriolat (1920-1945), died in Mauthausen;

René Rouzé (1922-1945), died in Dora-Mittelbau;

Henri Euzenat (1920-1945), who died at Dachau;

Eugène Lemoine (1920-1945) (also a Scout), died at Zöschen;

Bernard Morizot (1924-1945) (also a Scout), interned at Buchenwald and shot.

YCS lay leader (and Scout), Jean Préhu (1920-1945) died at Dachau.

So too did YCS leader, Jean Chavet (see above=.

Priests linked to the YCW were:

René Giraudet (1907-1945), interned at Bergen-Belsen, sick with typhus, died in Paris;

Victor Dillard (1897-1945), who died at the Dachau concentration camp;

Louis Doumain (1920-1944), died at the Zöschen concentration camp;

Pierre de Porcaro (1904-1945), who died at the Dachau concentration camp.

And the jocist seminarians were:

Roger Vallée (1920-1944), who died at Mauthausen;

Jean Tinturier (1921-1945), who died at Mauthausen.

In addition to the French jocist martyrs, many Belgian JOC and KAJ leaders and chaplains also lost their lives during World War II, including lay co-founders, Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet.

Memorial card for Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet

In Hungary, Blessed Sara Salkahazi, who was a chaplain to the Girls YCW movement, was killed for her role in saving the lives of many Jewish children.