Ceferino Gimenez Malla, advisor to Bishops, is the first gypsy honored by the Church with the title “Blessed”.Ceferino Gimenez Malla died in the Spanish Civil War.
The cause of Ceferino– generally known by his nickname “El Pele”– moved especially quickly through Vatican channels, as Church officials saw an unusual opportunity to recognize and encourage the world’s gypsies.
Pele lived in Barbastro, and although he was nearly illiterate, his natural intelligence was enough to bring him to prominence; he became a member of the city council, and the bishop regularly consulted him for advice. In addition to a deep Eucharistic piety, he was active in the teaching of youngsters and care for the poor.
At a time when the militia was hunting down priests, Pele was arrested for harboring a young cleric, and eventually– after refusing to renounce the faith– shot by a firing squad. The beatification of a gypsy is an indication of the Church’s pastoral care for a people who have been, as one bishop put it, “baptized but never evangelized.”
Gypsies have suffered through numerous persecutions in Europe, most recently under the Nazi regime, and when he visited Auschwitz in 1995 Pope John Paul alluded to the “tragic end of our gypsy brothers and sisters” there.
(Based on a report from Catholic World News)
For more background on pastoral care of gypsies visit the Vatican site Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples”
