Tears at the Synod

Zenit reports on a talk given by Bishop Antons Justs of Latvia at the World Synod of Bishops:

I remember our Latvian priest, Viktors ... who during the Soviet regime in Latvia was arrested for possessing the holy Bible. In the eyes of the Soviet agents the holy Scriptures were an antirevolutionary book. The agents threw the holy Scriptures on the floor and ordered the priest to step on it. The priest refused and instead knelt down and kissed the book.

For this gesture the priest was condemned to 10 years of hard labor in Siberia. Ten years later when the priest returned to his parish and celebrated the holy Mass, he read the Gospel. Then he lifted up the lectionary and said: 'The Word of God!' The people cried and thanked God. They did not dare to applaud him, because that would be understood as another provocation.

Ah, for faithful priests!

"If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire." Pope John Paul II