Deacon at Dachau -- UPDATED

I, along with others, have written extensively about the influence the priest-prisoners at Concentration Camp Dachau had on the renewal of the (permanent) diaconate by the Second Vatican Council.  For those who are not familiar with this history, you might want to check out some of the books listed on my "bookshelf" to the right.

But what many people don't realize is the fact that there was a deacon incarcerated at Dachau.  Deacon Karl Leisner, now Blessed Karl Leisner, was ordained a (transitional) deacon in 1939, expecting ordination to the presbyterate shortly thereafter.  However, he was such an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime that he was arrested and sent to Dachau.  There he was imprisoned with priests and other religious leaders in the infamous "Priesterblock".  He became very ill with tuberculosis and gave up hope that he might ever be ordained to the priesthood.  However, a French bishop was incarcerated in the same cell block in 1944, and he requested ordination even though he was terminally ill with TB.

Fr. Otto Pies, SJ, the unofficial leader of the priest-prisoners, smuggled letters out of the camp via a young woman candidate of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Imma Mack.  Sister Imma would later be referred to as "the angel of Dachau" because of her efforts to smuggle bread into the camp (Sister Imma passed away in 2006).  Pies gave letters requesting authority for the French bishop to ordain Leisner to the priesthood.  Sister Imma hand-carried the letters to Cardinal Feldhauber, who not only gave a "dimissorial letter" (permission for another bishop to ordain one of his seminarians), but also an ordination ritual book and chrism needed for the ordination; Sister Imma was to return these items, along with written documentation of the ordination if they were able to celebrate it.  Meanwhile, a number of prisoners, including a couple of non-Catholics who worked in different work areas of the camp, made full sets of vestments for the bishop and Deacon Leisner (including a biretta for the new priest to wear!).  The ordination was celebrated in 1944 in secret, and the documentation was smuggled to Sister Imma who delivered it all to the Cardinal.  Here's a video in Italian (but with English and Spanish subtitles that gives some of the details).

Father Leisner was so ill that he only celebrated one Mass while incarcerated.  Shortly after the camp was liberated, he was sent to a hospital for the terminally ill, where he died in 1945.

I think it's important that these kinds of stories remain current in our minds and hearts as we consider what ministry today should look like!  We take so many things for granted!  And yet, it was from experiences such as these that the dream of a renewed permanent diaconate was brought forth in concrete terms.  It was thought, by men like Leisner and Pies, and women like S. Imma, that deacons could help create a world where this kind of madness might no longer exist.

Now, let's talk again about "doing diaconate right."