Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents’ lives. This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the “sacramental seal,” because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains “sealed” by the sacrament.

Above:  Blessed Ndue (Karl) Serreqi

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED NDUE SERREQI (FEBRUARY 26, 1911-APRIL 4, 1954)

Albanian Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr, 1954

Also known as Blessed Karl Serreqi

Blessed Ndue (Karl) Serreqi comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church.

Our saint, born Ndue Serreqi in Shkodrë, Albania, on February 26, 1911, studied under Franciscan friars.  He joined that order as a young man.  Our saint, ordained a priest, as Father Karl, in Brescia, Italy, in June 1936, served as a parish priest in the mountains of Albania.

Albania, formerly under Italian fascist occupation, came under communist control in 1944.  The government began to suppress religion in 1946; it focused particular ire on Roman Catholics, who had enjoyed official favor during the fascist occupation.  This stereotyping labeled all Albanian Roman Catholics as fascists.

Consider the following, O reader:

—The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (1997), paragraph #1467

Albanian authorities arrested Serreqi on October 9, 1946.  They demanded that Father Karl reveal details of the confessions of anti-communist rebels.  The priest, incarcerated and tortured, refused to break the sacramental seal of confession.  The court sentenced our saint to death on January 18, 1947.  However, the sentence became life in prison.  The priest, having suffered greatly in prison, died behind bars on April 4, 1954.  He was 43 years old.

Holy Mother Church has formally recognized Father Karl.  Pope Francis declared Serreqi a Venerable then a beatus in 2016.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JUTTA DISIBODENBERG, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND HER STUDENT, SAINT HILDEGARD OF BINGEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT ZYGMUNT SZCESNY FELINSKI, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF WARSAW, TITULAR BISOHP OF TARSUS, AND FOUNDER OF RECOVERY FOR THE POOR AND THE CONGREGATOIN OF THE FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF THE FAMILY OF MARY

THE FEAST OF SAINT ZYGMUNT SAJNA, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1940

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Gracious Lord, in every age you have sent men and women

who have given their lives for the message of your love.

Inspire us with the memory of those martyrs for the Gospel

[like your servant Blessed Ndue (Karl) Serreqi]

whose faithfulness led them in the way of the cross,

and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives

to your Son’s victory over sin and death;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Ezekiel 28:40-42

Psalm 5

Revelation 6:9-11

Mark 8:34-38

–Adapted from the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 37

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