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BLAJ, Romania (AP) — Pope Francis paid homage Sunday to Catholics who were persecuted, tortured and killed during Romania's communist regime by presiding over the beatification of seven bishop martyrs on his third and final day in the country.
Francis presided over the eastern rite beatification Mass Sunday in Blaj, a stronghold of the Greek-Catholic Church that was outlawed during communism. The seven bishops had been arrested and imprisoned between 1950 and 1970 for adhering to their faith.
Francis is expected to hold them up as models for the Romanian faithful today. Sunday's Mass marked the first time that Francis has ever presided over an eastern rite liturgy as pope, the Vatican said.
The Mass is being celebrated on the symbolic "Field of Liberty," a huge expanse east of Blaj that was the site of an important nationalist rally in 1848. A century later, communist leaders marking the anniversary at the field demanded that Greek-Catholics join the Orthodox church.
Many refused, and thousands of priests were incarcerated in communist prisons, including the seven being beatified Sunday. The Catholic Church's property was seized. The refusal of the Orthodox church to return Catholic assets remains a source of tension between the two today.
"This is a holy day for all Catholics," said 50-year old Emanuela Canta, who arrived in the Blaj field early Sunday to get a spot. "I wish we could share the same kind of faith they (the martyrs) had. I wish God could strengthen us and our belief."
It was Francis' second visit to Transylvania, after he celebrated Mass on Saturday at the Sumuleu Ciuc shrine in the Carpathian mountains, the most important pilgrimage site in Romania dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Francis is travelling across Romania to visit its far-flung Catholic communities. The unusually thorough single-country itinerary is making up for the fact that St. John Paul II was only allowed to visit the capital, Bucharest, in 1999 in the first papal visit to a majority Orthodox country since the Great Schism divided Christianity.
After Mass in Blaj, Francis will meet with people from the disadvantaged Roma minority before returning to the Vatican.
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Winfield reported from Rome.
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