Johannes Prassek
John Prassek ( born August 13, 1911 in Hamburg, † November 10, 1943 ) was a German Catholic priest and one of the Martyrs of Lübeck. He was beatified in 2011.
Life
Prassek was born in 1911 in Hamburg's Barmbek as the son of a craftsman and came from very humble background. He completed his schooling in the grammar school of Johanneums in Winterhude district of Hamburg.
He studied theology and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main ( Sankt Georgen ) and Münster and was ordained a priest in Osnabrück in 1937. As a chaplain, he was first in Wittenburg, then worked from 1939 at the Sacred Heart Church in Lübeck in parish ministry.
Prassek is portrayed as a strong character and courageous. He received two weeks before his arrest, nor the air defense of honor, because he. During the devastating air raid on Lübeck on 28-29 March 1942 had helped to rescue people from a wrecked hospital.
From his opposition to the Nazi regime, he made no secret and let this also be seen in his sermons. In addition, he devoted himself to the pastoral care among Polish forced laborers. In order to do pastoral work, even for Polish fellow Christians, he learned their native language. Later, he used this knowledge to take care of Polish forced laborers in secret, which was forbidden. Finally, he was denounced and arrested by the Gestapo on 18 May 1942. With him in prison, two other Catholic priests of the deanery church - Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange - and the evangelical pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink who had also turned openly against the Nazi regime.
During the process, Prassek known for his criticism of Nazism and, after a pardon of his bishop Hermann Wilhelm Berning was dismissed, executed with his three co-defendants on November 10, 1943 in the Hamburg prison Holstenglacis with the guillotine.
On the 60th anniversary of his execution was the Archbishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen, announced that the beatification process will open for John Prassek and for Eduard Muller and Hermann Lange.
On 15 November 2007 was laid a stumbling block for John Prassek before Christ the King Church in Osnabrück- Haste. Prassek in 1937 celebrated his first Mass as a priest. It was also founded on the initiative of Rev. Thomas Stühlmeyer towards 2005 John Prassek Working Group and named the local youth and community center after him. Prasseks breviary was accidentally rediscovered at a resolution apartment in Hamburg and is now in Lingen ( Ems) in a glass case of St. Joseph 's Basilica.
On 1 July 2010, the Vatican press office announced that Pope Benedict XVI. had authorized the Prefect of the Congregation for Causes of Saints, a corresponding decree " to put in force ", and the beatification process had been completed. The beatification took place along with the beatification of the two other Catholic clergy in Lübeck on June 25, 2011. Even the Protestant ministers Stellbrink was thinking.
In Hamburg - people village community hall of the Catholic Holy Cross church is named after him because he was on April 4, 1937 celebrated his first Mass in this church home. His first Mass celebrated Prassek in the Christ the King Church in Haste (Osnabrück).