Pope Beatifies Gypsy Martyr Catholic Church Takes Step Toward Greater Tolerance, Understanding Of Nomadic Group

Pope John Paul II on Sunday beatified a Gypsy for the first time in Roman Catholic Church history, taking a step to promote tolerance and understanding of the nomadic group.

Several thousand Gypsies from all over Europe joined the crowd in St. Peter’s Square for a Mass in honor of Ceferino Jimenez Malla and four other people beatified by the pope. Beatification is the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Gypsies, who are believed to have come from India six centuries ago, live throughout Europe on the edges of society, often residing in campgrounds and trailer parks.

Jimenez Malla, 75, was killed by republican forces during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. He had been arrested for defending a priest and died refusing to renounce his faith, his supporters say.

“The blessed Ceferino Jimenez Malla sowed harmony and solidarity among the Gypsies, mediating conflicts that plagued relations between non-Gypsies and Gypsies,” the pope said in his homily.

Jimenez Malla showed that “the charity of Christ knows no limits of race or culture,” John Paul told about 30,000 people under bright sunshine.

Florentino Asensio Barroso, bishop of Barbastro, Spain, where Jimenez Malla died, also was beatified Sunday. Asensio Barroso was killed by republican forces, too.

Also beatified were Gaetano Catanoso, a prison chaplain in southern Italy and founder of a small religious order who died in 1963; Enrico Rebuschini, a northern Italian priest who died in 1938; and Maria Encarnacion Rosal, a 19th century Guatemalan nun.