Beatification cause opened for young Jesuit killed by Nazis

The beatification cause for Jesuit novice Tomas Munk and his father, Frantisek Munk, was opened on Sept. 27 in the Slovakian city of Bratislava.

The city's Archbishop Stanislav Zvolensky presided at the ceremony accompanied by various bishops.

A tribunal will now examine evidence of Tomas and Frantisek's martyrdom. Father Ondrej Gabris, the vice postulator of the cause, has submitted a list of 14 testimonies.

Tomas and his father were shot during a “death march” near Sachsenhausen on April 22, 1945. Both were atheists of Jewish origin prior to their conversions.
 
In the mid-1930s, Tomas began having an interest in the Catholic faith.  He was baptized in 1939 in the city of Ruzomberok, Slovakia.
 
In 1943 Tomas entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. The following year, the Munk family was arrested by Nazi soldiers.
 
Vatican Radio reported that on the night before his arrest, Tomas decided to offer his life to God for the salvation of his country. Frantisek and his wife Gizela, together with their sons Tomas and Juraj, were sent to a concentration camp. They were later separated and sent on three different trains to Germany. 
 
The Catholic television station “Tv Lux” aired a special documentary on Tomas and his father to mark the opening of their cause for beatification.