Pope Leo XIV approves beatification of two young Italian priests killed by Nazis in 1944 for refusing to abandon their flocks; four others declared Venerable.
Newsroom (21/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) Pope Leo XIV on Friday authorized the beatification of two Italian priests executed by Nazi forces in 1944, recognizing their deaths as martyrdom in hatred of the faith.
During an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Pope promulgated decrees confirming the martyrdom of Father Ubaldo Marchioni, 26, and Father Martino Capelli, 32, both killed in Emilia-Romagna during brutal SS reprisals against civilians and partisans.
Father Marchioni, bursar of San Martino di Caprara near Bologna, was shot in the head before the altar of Santa Maria Assunta church in Casaglia on September 29, 1944, after sheltering women and children and protecting the Blessed Sacrament. His mutilated body was cited as evidence of the Nazis’ contempt for Christianity.
Father Capelli, a Dehonian priest and Scripture scholar, was executed on October 1, 1944, near Pioppe di Salvaro after ministering to victims of the Marzabotto massacre and hearing confessions of prisoners. Despite orders from his superiors to return to safety, he remained with the terrified population.
The decrees also recognized the heroic virtues of four Servants of God, advancing them to Venerable status:
- Archbishop Enrico Bartoletti (1916–1976), former secretary-general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference and a key figure in implementing Vatican II reforms;
- Father Gaspare Goggi (1877–1908), an early disciple of Saint Luigi Orione renowned for his ministry to Rome’s poor;
- Sister Maria of the Sacred Heart (Dr. Mary Glowrey, 1887–1957), Australia’s first Catholic woman doctor who became a religious and founded India’s Catholic Health Association;
- Maria de Lourdes Guarda (1926–1996), a Brazilian laywoman who, despite lifelong paralysis, coordinated apostolic work for people with disabilities from her hospital bed.
The beatification of Fathers Marchioni and Capelli – the final step before possible canonization – underscores the Church’s remembrance of clergy who laid down their lives for their flocks during the horrors of the Second World War. No date has yet been set for the ceremony.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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