For us Catholics the 7^th of October is the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which used to be known as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. On this day we remember the Battle of Lepanto (1571) in which Catholic forces from several countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea victoriously defended Rome. Pope Pius V had called for all Catholics to pray the Rosary for victory.

However, there is another historical event that should not be forgotten.
On the 7^th of October 1938, the Archbishop of Vienna, Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, celebrated Evening Mass for the Youth in St Stephen’s Cathedral. In his Homily he reportedly called out to the young people: “Einer ist Euer Führer, Euer Führer ist Christus” (You only have one leader. Your leader is Christ).
What followed was one of the biggest open protests against the NAZI regime. A great number of Catholic students, apparently more than 7,000 of them, gathered for a spontaneous ‘Rosenkranz-Demonstration’ (Rosary-Protest). While the NAZI youth were supposed to call out: “Wir wollen unseren Führer sehen!” (We want to see our leader) these students called out: “Wir wollen unseren Bischof sehen!” (we want to see our bishop) which was seen as a provocation by the regime.

A few months prior, the NAZI regime had occupied Austria and prohibited clubs and associations as they had already done in Germany. Catholic student fraternities were also prohibited.
The peaceful protests on the 7^th of October 1938 were accompanied by the singing of church hymns. However, the next day, some NAZI gangs took revenge. The bishop’s residence and offices were ravaged and a clergy man thrown out of a window and seriously injured. The archbishop managed to escape the angry mob.

Some of the young participants in the protests of the 7^th of October 1938 paid dearly for their courage to stand up for their belief and freedom of expression. Several of them were jailed or sent to concentration camps. At least one of them died in a concentration camp.
On the 13^th of October 1938 a huge anti-clerical and anti-Semitic protest was held in Vienna in response to the student protests.

The courage to stand up against a regime that does not respect human rights and religious freedom should never be taken for granted. These courageous people who protested peacefully were representing many more people and their actions could be seen as the conscience of those who, for different reasons, don’t stand up.

Having the freedom to vote without fear or favour is part of the pillars of the foundation of a democratic state. Democratic means led by the people (demos). Winston Churchill is famously quoted with the words: “Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried”.
Democracy only works if we are well informed and hence take informed decisions. While it might be time-consuming to discern true from false news in a flood of information today, there were people before us who fought for our right to vote in free in fair elections…

In his Encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV has reminded us of valuable guidelines for our decision-finding when we vote: Catholic Social Teaching.

BM