Pope John Paul II today beatified an Armenian archbishop who died during the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Turkish troops, and a German journalist who was executed by the Nazis following a failed 1944 attempt on Adolf Hitler's life.
Mr Nikolaus Gross was a non-violent opponent of Hitler's rule and is already officially recognised by the church as a martyr.
Although his official biography said he was not personally involved in preparing or carrying out the July 1944 attack on the German dictator, he was arrested for treason and executed the following January.
According to the Mr Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance, Gross had been trying to organise Catholic workers in preparation for the assassination attempt.
"Being opposed to all forms of violence, Mr Nikolaus Gross had disassociated himself from the plot," said Mr Andrea Ambrosi, the lawyer in charge of his beatification process.
The pope also beatified Archbishop Ignatius Maloyan, who died during the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians in 1915, in what was then the Ottoman Empire, a German nun, Sister Maria Eutymia Uffing, who died in 1955 aged 41, as well as Sister Emilie Tavernier Gamelin, who founded the Sisters of Providence religious community in Montreal and who died in 1851.
In a prayer for the people who died in the explosion of a Russian jet over the Black Sea last week as well as "stable peace" in Colombia after an agreement between the country's guerrilla and the government, the 81-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church also asked believers to pray for world peace every day in October.
Since the start of his pontificate in 1978 John Paul II has beatified more than 1,200 people as an example to follow by the Catholic faithful. He has also canonised 400 others making them saints.
AFP