Joseph Georg Simon Häfner (19 October 1900,

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

– 20 August 1942,

Dachau Concentration Camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

) was a German Roman Catholic priest and martyr from the

Diocese of Würzburg In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. On 15 May 2011 he was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

in Würzburg Cathedral.

Life

Georg Häfner came from humble origins – his father Valentin Häfner was a municipal worker. Georg Häfner was baptized in the cathedral parish, in 1918 he passed the exam for military school. However, his parents also allowed him to study theology and two years after beginning to do so, he joined the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites. On 13 April 1924 to Georg Häfner was ordained a priest and held his first mass at the Kloster Himmelspforten in Würzburg. This was followed by several terms as a chaplain, before he was appointed pastor of Oberschwarzach in Franconia in 1934. Häfner refused to give the Nazi salute, which made him unpopular to the Nazi regime as chaplain of the Altglashuetten district of

Wildflecken Wildflecken is a municipality in the Bad Kissingen district, at the border of northwestern Bavaria and southern Hesse. In 2005, its population was 3,285; the postal code is 97772 (US Forces used APO NY 09026 until July 15, 1991, when APO/FPO/DPO ...

. From 1938 onwards he was banned from giving religious education at the local school in Oberschwarzach, meaning he had to hold first communion and confirmation classes in secret. Due to critical remarks against the Nazi regime in his teaching and preaching – he is said to have referred to them, among other things, as "brown dung beetles" – he was frequently arrested and questioned by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. In August 1941 a seriously-ill member of the Nazi party asked Häfner to come to give him the last rites. Häfner came as requested, but left the party-member to sign a deathbed confession that his second civil-ceremony marriage was invalid before God and his conscience. After reading a statement in church the following Sunday that the man was to be buried in church, Häfner was denounced by a second party member and arrested by the Gestapo. He was initially held in the Gestapo prison in Würzburg. Although Vicar-General Franz Miltenberger interceded for him, Häfner was moved to the so-called 'priest block' at Dachau on 12 December 1941 without a court-order. His prisoner number was 28876. He died there on 20 August 1942 from the effects of abuse and malnutrition. He was buried in the priests' section of Würzburg's Hauptfriedhof cemetery on 18 September 1942.

Beatification

On 9 December 1942, in the presence of bishop

Paul-Werner Scheele Paul-Werner Scheele (6 April 1928 – 10 May 2019) was a German Catholic prelate and theologian. Born in Olpe, Scheele was ordained to the priesthood in 1952, and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn in 1975. In 1979, he became the Bishop of W ...

, Häfner's remains were moved into the crypt of the Neumünsterkirche. The episcopal survey on his beatification took place from 23 July 1992 to 31 May 2002. On 3 July 2009

pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

issued a decree stating that Häfner was a martyr. On 8 September 2010 bishop

Friedhelm Hofmann Friedhelm is a name of Germanic origin. It may refer to: *Friedhelm Busse (1929–2008), German national socialist politician and activist * Friedhelm Döhl (born 1936), German composer and professor of music * Friedhelm Eronat (born 1953), Geneva- ...

and the

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...

of the beatification process, dean Msgr. Günter Putz, announced that the beatification ceremony would occur on 15 May 2011 at the Kiliansdom in WürzburgPostulator im Seligsprechungsprozess
/ref> – its motto would be "simple, believing, consistent".

Other honours

The Monteverdichor Würzburg dedicated its concert 'The Beatitudes', held on 16 and 17 July 2010, to Häfner. In March 2011 the Egbert-Gymnasium Münsterschwarzach premiered a scenic oratorio entitled "Häfner – a decision". A square on the corner of Östlichen Bockgasse in Würzburg, near his childhood home, was renamed after Häfner in 2011. He is also commemorated by a stolpersteine in front of the Neumünster in Würzburg.

Works

* Georg Häfner 1900–1945. Hrsg. Diözesanarchiv Würzburg. Würzburg 2011.

Bibliography

* Putz, Günter: ''Gott ist der Grund. Das Lebenszeugnis von Georg Häfner. Einsichten in das Priesteramt''. Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 2000, * Putz, Günter: ''Opferfrucht. Der selige Georg Häfner (1900–1942)''. Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 2013, * Scheele, Paul-Werner; Wittstadt, Klaus: ''Georg Häfner. Priester und Opfer. Briefe aus der Haft. Gestapodokumente''. Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 1983,

External links

Memorial page on Georg Häfner

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hafner, Georg 1900 births 1942 deaths German people who died in Dachau concentration camp Clergy from Würzburg Martyred Roman Catholic priests German beatified people Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI Venerated Carmelites 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests