Rome Newsroom, May 10, 2022 / 10:11 am
More than 60 journalists have petitioned Pope Francis to make Titus Brandsma an official patron saint of journalism.
An open letter published on May 10 said that the world “urgently requires a holy intercessor” like Brandsma, a Carmelite priest and journalist, “in these times of disinformation and polarization.”
Brandsma, who will be canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church on May 15, died in Dachau concentration camp in 1942 after he firmly opposed mandatory Nazi propaganda in Catholic newspapers.
“We, Catholic journalists, recognize in Titus Brandsma a professional peer and fellow believer of considerable standing. Someone who shared the deeper mission that should drive journalism in modern times: a search for truth and veracity, the promotion of peace and dialogue between people,” the petition says.