Archbishop Valerian Trifa (1914-1987)

His former rule of life perhaps you know:

to guard the old tradition to the death.

‘The faithful had no other way to go

than fight to save it till their dying breath.’

In 1941 he took the bayonet

against the hapless Jews of Bucharest

and so befriended Himmler, viler yet

than Trifa was. The Feds found out the rest:

he claimed asylum in the USA;

rose in the church. A holy penitent?

The careful Nazi clerks had filed away

the chummy mail to Himmler that he sent.

Was Paul redeemed on the Damascus Way

and is redemption possible today?

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"For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.’

Saint Paul