Special edition: YCW and YCS martyrs beatified
Video from Notre Dame de Paris - Pepe Palacio 50 years - More movement saints and martyrs
Friends
This is a special issue of our newsletter to remember the French YCW and YCS martyrs of World War II who were beatified at Notre Dame Cathedral on Saturday 13 December 2025.
In a twist of fate, Saturday was also the 50th anniversary to the day of the death of Argentinian YCW and worker leader, José Serapio “Pepe” Palacio, who was killed on 13 December 1975 as part of Operation Condor, which targeted worker and community leaders in South America.
In this special issue, we also remember other martyrs of our movements, including YCW lay co-founders, Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet, as well as Blessed Sara Salkahazi, executed for her role in saving Jewish refugees in Hungary during World War II.
Let us remember them all.
The Centre International Cardijn Team
Beatification ceremony from Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
Homily by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich
Papal legate Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg presided over the beatification ceremony and delivered the homily. Recalling the heroic sacrifices of the French martyrs, Cardinal Hollerich said “faith is never private; it must find expression in the concrete service of our sisters and brothers”.
“Let me make an appeal to the young people of France,” he continued. “You who call yourselves young Catholics, you are devoted to the adoration of Our Lord, and that is as it should be: may this love of Christ impel you to become missionary apostles.
“And all of you young people, perhaps not attending church, from France and Europe, you who no longer see meaning in your lives, you are searching for an identity that gives you purpose, look to Christ, Prince of Peace, Prince of love and not of hate, learn from him as your elder brothers, martyrs, beatified today, learn from him to commit yourselves to the good of your brothers and sisters! Your life can be so beautiful, and you will see this beauty in your life by following Christ.”
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Cardinal Hollerich’s homily (English)
Homélie du Cardinal Hollerich (Français)
The list of YCW and YCS martyrs
Here is a list of YCW and YCS leaders, chaplains and seminarians beatified on Saturday with links to their biographies.
YCW leaders
Jean Lépicier (1921-1945), died at Buchenwald;
Bernard Lemaire (1920-1944), died of typhus at Buchenwald;
Maurice Grandet (1920-1944), died of typhus at Buchenwald;
René Ponsin (1923-1945), died at Buchenwald;
Claude-Colbert Lebeau (1922-1945), died at Zöschen;
Jean Chavet (1922-1945), died of typhus at Mauthausen;
André Parsy (1922-1944), interned at Zöschen, died at Trebitz;
André Vallée (1919-1945), died at Flossenbürg;
Henri Marrannes (1923-1945), died in Zwickau;
Louis Pourtois (1919-1945), died in Mauthausen; Camille Millet (1922-1945), died in Flossenbürg;
Marcel Carrier (1922-1945), died in Neustadt during the “death march”;
Alfredo Dall’Oglio (1921-1944), Italian naturalised French, died in Wuhlheide;
Marcel Touquet (1914-1945), died in Ravensbrück;
Lucien Croci (1919-1945), died in Barth;
Jean Mestre (1924-1944), died shortly after his arrest;
Jean Perriolat (1920-1945), died in Mauthausen;
René Rouzé (1922-1945), died in Dora-Mittelbau;
Henri Euzenat (1920-1945), who died at Dachau;
Eugène Lemoine (1920-1945) (also a Scout), died at Zöschen;
Bernard Morizot (1924-1945) (also a Scout), interned at Buchenwald and shot.
YCS leaders
Jean Préhu (1920-1945), YCS lay leader (and Scout), died at Dachau.
So too did YCS leader, Jean Chavet, who was also a YCW leader (see above)
Priests
René Giraudet (1907-1945), interned at Bergen-Belsen, sick with typhus, died in Paris;
Victor Dillard (1897-1945), who died at the Dachau concentration camp;
Louis Doumain (1920-1944), died at the Zöschen concentration camp;
Pierre de Porcaro (1904-1945), who died at the Dachau concentration camp.
Jocist seminarians
Roger Vallée (1920-1944), who died at Mauthausen;
Jean Tinturier (1921-1945), who died at Mauthausen.
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Martyrs of the YCW and YCS (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Pepe and Amalia Palacio
Born on 25 October 1923, José Serapio “Pepe” Palacio co-founded the YCW in the Argentinian Diocese of Corboda together with (Blessed) Enrique Angelelli.
During the 1950s, Pepe was a member of the International YCW’s embryonic Executive Committee. Later, he became a trade union leader and a leader of the Christian Worker Movement.
In April 1975, he was appointed as the first lay collaborator of the IYCW. His first assignment was to take part in an IYCW Workers Meeting in Bogota, Colombia in September-October 1975.
Shortly after his return he was abducted from outside his office, becoming one of the many “desaparecidos” of that time. Twenty five years later, research by his son, José Luis, found that he was killed on 13 December 1975 as part of the Pinochet-led CIA-backed Operation Condor to eliminate labour and community leaders and activists in South America.
Let us also remember the living martyrdom of Pepe’s wife, Amalia, who was left alone to struggle and raise their three sons.
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Pepe and Amalia Palacio (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Enrique Angelelli (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Blessed Sara Salkahazi
Blessed Sara Salkahazi was a Slovak-born Hungarian nun, who helped launch the Girls YCW movement in Hungary during the 1930s.
During the war, she and her colleagues hid many Jewish refugees trying to avoid capture and deportation by Nazi forces.
On 27 December 1944, she was executed for this work.
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Sara Salkahazi (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet
Fernand Tonnet and Paul Garcet were two of the lay co-founders of the Belgian YCW. They both died in Nazi concentration camps in early 1945.
In 1965, there were moves in Belgium to launch their canonisation processes. Cardijn himself spoke in support of this. However, no further progress has been made.
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Fernand Tonnet (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Paul Garcet (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Blessed Miguel Pro
Miguel Pro was a Jesuit student who participated in the founding Belgian JOC National Congress in April 1925 before returning to Mexico where he was executed on trumped up charges two years later.
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Miguel Pro (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
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