By RAY CAVANAUGH
St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is quite well-known as the patron of writers and journalists. But Catholic journalists have a more recent patron in Blessed Titus Brandsma, whose feast day is July 27.
Brandsma, a Dutch native, became a priest, professor, and journalist who spoke out against the rising tide of Nazism in his day.
He was born Anno Sjoerd Brandsma on February 23, 1881, in the Friesland Province in the northwestern part of The Netherlands. He grew up in a village where his family operated a dairy farm. Though most people who lived in their area belonged to the Calvinist faith, the Brandsmas were a devout and ardently Catholic family.
After attending Franciscan-run schools, Brandsma entered a Carmelite monastery at age 17, adopting the religious name “Titus.” He soon showed an interest in journalism and philosophy.
Ordained as a priest in 1905, he received a doctorate of philosophy four years later, and then made a career of teaching. In 1923, he helped establish the Catholic University of Nijmegen, where he served as professor of spirituality and the history of piety. Additionally, he worked as a journalist.
In 1935, Brandsma was appointed by the archbishop of Utrecht as a spiritual adviser of the Dutch Catholic Association of Journalists. He soon began to share his concern over a “lack of militancy, enthusiasm, and spirit of sacrifice among Catholic journalists,” according to the article, “Global Significance of Titus Brandsma for Journalism,” which tells how Brandsma is viewed as a “martyr for the freedom of the press in general and for the Catholic press in particular.”
Brandsma was among the first in his region to lecture about the dangers of the National Socialism of Germany’s Nazi Party. His insight also extended to the future of journalism regarding technological developments, such as the beginning of the television era.
But the Nazi issue took precedence over all else, when they invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. The Netherlands had proclaimed neutrality regarding World War II, but Germany bombed them anyway, and then took control of the country. High-ranking Dutch officials, along with the Dutch monarchy, fled to Britain.
The Nazis then began to insert their propaganda into the Dutch media. Against this activity, Brandsma spoke out. And such defiance put him on Nazi radar.
In that time, there were some 30 Dutch Catholic publications. Brandsma, at immense personal risk, hand-delivered each editor a letter from the archbishop, ordering Catholic media to refuse to print any Nazi propaganda. He made it to about half of these editors before he was arrested on January 19, 1942.
According to the website of the Titus Brandsma Institute (titusbran
dsmainstituut.nl), Brandsma was interrogated in The Hague during January 20-21, 1942. He was held captive in multiple Nazi-controlled Dutch prisons before being transferred to the infamous Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
He arrived at Dachau on June 19. Like many placed in that venue, his physical health quickly began to decline. After one month, the 61-year-old was relocated to the camp hospital. Inside this Dachau “hospital,” his body was used as a subject for medical experimentation.
On July 26, 1942 he received a lethal injection from a Nazi nurse. His remains were cremated in a Dachau furnace.
He did not actively seek martyrdom. It just came his way. In the face of suffering and mortality, he was especially stoic. Despite having a rather meek appearance, Brandsma was a man of immense personal courage (and a slightly short temper), according to Dutch journalist Ton Crijnen.
The Titus Brandsma Memorial Church now stands in Nijmegen. In 1968, Radboud University and the Dutch Carmelites established The Titus Brandsma Institute for the Study of Spirituality, which seeks to promote the spirituality and mysticism held by the man himself.
On November 3, 1985, Brandsma was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Aside from such recognition by the Vatican, Brandsma’s name was spreading around the world.
The first Titus Brandsma Award for journalism was given in 1992. That same year, Ireland launched a conservative Catholic magazine called The Brandsma Review. At the other end of the planet, Quezon City in the Philippines has a Titus Brandsma Media Center, dedicated to helping media professionals best serve their community.
Some journalists (including your humble correspondent) have to worry only about paper cuts. However, other journalists are taking on oppressive, powerful regimes. These, like Brandsma, are marked individuals.
“Every country, every place, every time we need journalists to see with a sharp eye for injustice, and a warm heart for the dignity of all people,” said Anne-Marie Bos of the Titus Brandsma Institute, which currently has 22 staff members and has published a handbook, Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods, the product of 40 years of study of its members.
This handbook has been translated from Dutch to English, among other languages.
Bos herself has written an article, soon to be published, called “The Blessed Titus Brandsma: A Paradigm of Carmelite Spirituality.”
When asked if she expects Brandsma to be made a saint, she replied: “I am sure he will. One day. . . .”
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