One of the great bishops of the 20th century died 75 years ago, on July 23, 1951. The heroic witness of Cardinal Adam Sapieha does not belong only to the past; it has an echo today in one of the bravest bishops of the 21st century, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Indeed, given the changing political geography of Sapieha’s life, it could be argued that Shevchuk is one of his heirs.
Cardinal Sapieha served the see of Kraków for an astonishing 40 years, 1911-1951, the longest tenure in the thousand-year history of the diocese-then archdiocese. It was the most tormented of times, including two world wars, short-lived Polish independence, Polish occupation by the Nazis (Auschwitz was in his diocese) and then the Soviets, who imposed post-World War II Stalinization. No bishop of the “bloodlands” — the territories between Berlin and Moscow — saw so much carnage.
Every year in Kraków, the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society, led by George Weigel, unfolds for three weeks in Sapieha’s city. This year, as is common, we had Ukrainian participants, including one whose father was killed during the current Russian war against Ukraine.
The concluding Mass
