Fr. Walter Ciszek, born in Shenadoah, Pennsylvania, was a man of great gifts; he was talented, athletic, and self-disciplined. He entered the Jesuits, was ordained a priest, and volunteered to be sent as a missionary to Communist Russia. He had not been ministering long when he was arrested by the Communists and put in solitary confinement in the infamous Lubianka prison. For months his interrogators wore him down, demanding that he confess to being a Vatican spy. Finally, in a moment of weakness, he gave in and signed the confession. Now totally broken and overcome with shame, he cried out to God. Fr. Ciszek wrote later that this was the moment of his true conversion, when he finally learned to trust in God instead of his own strength. Receiving God’s mercy in the time of his greatest failure gave him the courage to face the next 20 years in Soviet prison camps. He performed back-breaking labor while ministering to his fellow prisoners with serenity and total confidence in God’s plan. His cause for sainthood is now open.
Originally printed in IMPRINT Magazine Spring 2015.
