(ZENIT News / Rome, 01.11.2026) – On October 24, Pope Leo XIV approved the Beatification of Jan Bula and Vaclav Drbola, as announced by the Diocese of Brno in the Czech Republic. Both priests are among the victims of Communist totalitarianism in Czechoslovakia, who were beatified along with nine other Polish Salesian priests murdered by the Nazis.
In an audience granted by Pope Leo XIV on October 24, to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the promulgation was authorized of the decrees concerning the martyrdom of Polish priests between 1941 and 1942, «out of hatred for the faith,» in the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps, and of the Czech diocesan priests between 1951 and 1952, during the persecution of the Catholic Church by the Communist regime.
Although they were not involved in the tensions of the time, the Poles were arrested simply «for being Catholic priests» and subjected to «the same hatred that affected all the Polish clergy, persecuted and outraged,» Vatican News reported.
The Holy See Press Office also announced the Beatification of the Servants of God Jan Świerc and eight companions, professed priests of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco, and of the Servants of God Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, diocesan priests, murdered in Jihlava, former Czechoslovakia.
The Beatification process for Bula and Drbola began more than 20 years ago by the then Bishop of Brno, Monsignor Vojtěch Cikrle. The current Bishop, Monsignor Pavel Konzbul, noted the joy of the former Bishop. The two executed priests worked pastorally in the Diocese of Brno, in parishes in the Vysočina region.
Bishop Pavel Konzbul told TYDEN.cz: «I came across a series of documents that attested to the lives of these two young priests, I read Jan Bula’s letters from death row, and I thought for a long time about the anguish they must have experienced, the injustice and pain they suffered. And yet, they remained steadfast, faithful to the values to which they dedicated their lives, and were able to forgive their murderers. They are clearly role models from whom we can learn even today.»
