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János Scheffler (Template:Lang-de; October 29, 1887 – December 6, 1952) was a Austro-Hungarian-born Catholic priest in Romania and Hungary, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Satu Mare and later the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Győr. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011.

Life

He was born in 1887 in Kálmánd (Cămin), Szatmár County, Austria-Hungary, but became a citizen of Romania after the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. He was born into a Hungarian Roman Catholic farmer family of German descent.

In 1906 he studied theology at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, and was ordained a priest in 1910, assigned to Csomaköz (Ciumeşti). That October, he was sent to Rome to study canon law, and he became a doctor of law in 1912. In July 1914, as World War I was beginning, he became theology professor and dean of students at the theological seminary in Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare). In 1915 he received his scientific degree (doctor in theology). In 1922, with the Satu Mare and Oradea Mare dioceses being merged, he set up a single seminary, becoming its first dean as well as professor of canon law and church history. In 1923, he became parish priest at Moftinu Mare. Two years later, he started teaching candidates for the priesthood and attended the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. In 1942 he was elected to be the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Szatmárnémeti. In November 1945, Pope Pius XII chose him to be the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Győr. After the Second World War, he began to express opposition to government policies, objecting to the deportation of Germans to the Soviet Union. He appealed for the release of Alexandru Rusu, the Greek-Catholic Bishop of Maramureş arrested by the new communist regime. By 1950, all Catholic bishops in Romania had been arrested, Scheffler being among the last. He refused an offer to become a bishop in a national church subjected to the regime. He was imprisoned in 1952. He died at Jilava prison, tortured by having boiling water poured onto him. News of his death reached Satu Mare in 1953, and his remains were buried in the crypt of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Satu Mare in 1965.

Found to be a martyr by Pope Benedict XVI after a study lasting two decades, he was beatified in Satu Mare in 2011, in the presence of some 8000 worshipers.

Notes

1. Template:Hu icon Csaba Csirák, "Scheffler János püspök és a nemzetiségi kérdés", Keresztény Szó, accessed 17 January 2013
2. ^ Template:Ro icon Mihai Bledea, "Satu Mare: Episcopul Scheffler a fost beatificat", Adevărul, 4 July 2011; accessed May 14, 2012

Template:Persondata

• 1887 births
• 1952 deaths
• People from Satu Mare County
• Romanian people of Hungarian descent
• Hungarian people of German descent
• Hungarian Roman Catholic bishops
• Romanian Roman Catholic bishops
• Canon law jurists
• Romanian anti-communist clergy
• Beatified people
• Romanian torture victims
• Romanian people who died in prison custody