Archbishop Jean-Joseph Moussaron honored with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations

Maria Zawadzka, 16 November 2016
On July 4th, 2010 the French archbishop Jean-Joseph Moussaron, metropolitan of Albi in South-Western France from 1940 to 1956, was posthumously honored with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations. The medal and diploma were presented to archbishop Pierre-Marie Carré by the consul of Israel in Marseille, Szmuel Siwan.

On the order of Jean-Joseph Moussaron, during the Second World War Jews from the department of Tarn – Albi is its capital – were protected by Catholic institutions. According to Rev. Pierre Mathieu from the archdiocese of Albi, Moussaron was honored so lately because he was believed to be a supporter of marshal Philippe Pétain, although – as Mathieu emphasizes – he never collaborated with the pro-Nazi government.

Moussaron showed great courage, when he loudly protested against the arrests of Jews in Paris, which started in 1942. On September 19th, 1942 he wrote a letter about this problem to the authorities, and the following day his pastoral letter defending French Jews was read in churches. Moussaron asked priests to help Jews – on his order numerous Catholic institutions in the archdiocese gave shelter to the Jewish fugitives from occupied France. Moussaron had also been hiding Jews in his bishop’s palace. He was arrested by the Gestapo on June 15th, 1944 and transported to the prison in Toulouse, where he spent 8 years.

Apart from Moussaron, three other French bishops had been honored with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations: Jules Saliège (1870-1956) from Toulouse, Bp Pierre-Marie Théas (1894-1977) from Montauban, and Bp Daniel Pézeril (1911-1998) from Paris.

In Poland bishop Albin Małysiak from Krakow was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1993. During the Nazi occupation he was chaplain of the Krakow Helcl Center – an institution for the elderly and disabled. Together with Sister Bronisława Wilemska, director of the Center who was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1995, he helped five Jews. Katarzyna Styczeń, Helena Kachel, Henryk Juański, Zbigniew Kozanowski and a fifth man, whose identity remains unknown, became residents of the center. They received baptismal certificates and other documents authenticating their so-called “Aryan” origin. They were also provided with food, medicines and clothing. Other residents knew about the hiding, but no one reported it to the Germans.