Lynda Tripp of Clinton impeachment fame dies

Linda Tripp has died.

She became famous for secretly taping phone calls with Monica Lweinsky and later turning them over to Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor handling the Clinton investigation. The tapes eventually led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Although Tripp was 24 years older than Lewinsky, they both became close friends during their time working in the White House.

After Lewinsky had completed her testimony about her affair with Clinton, she told a CNN reporter: "I hate Linda Tripp."

Tripp moved from the White House to the Pentagon, where she was dismissed on the last day of the Clinton administration.

She subsequently sued the justice and defence departments for having released her employment and security files to the media. She won her case and was awarded close to $600,000, plus back pay for three years.

When Monica Lewinsky learned of the serious illness of Lynda Tripp she tweeted last Wednesday  "No matter the past, upon hearing that Linda Tripp is very seriously ill, I hope for her recovery. I can't imagine how difficult this is for her family."

In a case that supplied pages of salacious newspaper coverage there surely was something ironic about Lynda Tripp's surname.

An authoritarian President Trump

US President Trump at his press conference this evening said: "We can do whatever we want."

Remembering two tragic days

On this day, April 15, 1989, 96 people were killed at Hillsborough Stadium during an FA Cup semi-final.

It has taken 31 years to discover exactly what happened on that tragic day.

And on this day, April 15, 1941, approximately 1,000 people were killed as a result of a German bombing raid in Belfast. Over 200 planes were used in the bombing.

It's interesting the effects a border can have on people's historical awareness. 

That horrific night for the people of Belfast was seldom if ever mentioned in our history school books in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.

Describing yourself in 12 words

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Last Saturday week there was an obituary of Skibbereen GP Michael Boland in ‘The Irish Times’.

I had never heard of Michael Boland but I can imagine most doctors and every GP in the country knew him or had heard about him.

He was president of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (Wonca) between 2001 and 2004. 

Among the various jobs he did in his 32 years as a GP in Skibbereen was chairman of the Office of Tobacco Control, which oversaw the introduction of the smoking ban.

These days the World Health Organisation (WHO) features in the media every day. Dr Boland played a significant role in WHO’s current policy for primary health care.

In 2004 he was asked by The Irish Times to describe himself in 12 words for a feature they were writing about him. His reply: ‘Failed obsessional; relaxed Catholic; unelected politician; international Irishman; specialised generalist; ageing juvenile.

Isn’t it pure genius, brilliant. And it has a great sense of humour about it too.

Anyone who has ever worked as a subeditor or a proofreader learns early in the job that people tend to overwrite. 

Newspapers are inundated with reams of words. And the more incompetent the writer, you can be sure, the more she or he will write. 

And to make it more annoying they will also think that every word they put down on the paper plays an integral and essential role in the story.

Subeditors and proofreaders learn quickly how to use a scalpel.

The late Dr Boland’s words would be a delight to receive in any newspaper office.

Like any piece of good writing, it’s so easy to associate with what he says, or at least to think that he may be talking about the reader.

I’m certainly a failed obsessional. How many times do I go back and check the hall door, at least I did, in those halcyon days when I could leave the house. All the times I get out of the bed to make sure I turned off the tap in the bathroom. 

No doubt Dr Boland is talking about deeper and more consequential matters, but I have an inclination of what he is saying. 

I’m certainly a ‘relaxed Catholic’. And I know exactly what Dr Boland is saying and can imagine I would have agreed with him on most of his ‘relaxed Catholic’ views.

As to being an unelected politician, I have never been elected to any position in the Dominican Order. Something I see these days as a badge of honour. 

During my younger years and travelling backwards and forwards to Germany I fancied myself as a humble international Irishman. 

As to being a specialised generalist, I’m more inclined to consider myself a specialised messer. 

But it’s the last one that bowls me over. He sees himself as an ageing juvenile. It fits me to a tee. If anyone tells me I don’t look my age, of course I’m chuffed but quickly reply, that I have never acted my age and am delighted about that now.

You know, I had almost missed reading that obituary. Someone brought me the paper on the Saturday but I had put it away in an effort to decontaminate it. It was the following day that a friend colleague brought it to my attention.

The world of words, that’s right in front of our eyes, is spectacular. So often we discover them by accident or in a roundabout manner. Isn’t that the story of our lives?

President Trump says his authority is total

At the White House briefing yesterday President Donald Trump said his authority is absolute.

He criticised again the World Health Organization and added the World Trade Organisation to his list of enemies.

The president compared WHO and the WTO to the Bobbsey Twins.

The Bobbsey Twins were the main characters in children's novels. The first of the books was published in 1904.

The books related the adventures of the children of the upper-middle-class Bobbsey family, which included two sets of twins.

From USA Today
Paula Reid from CBS:

“The argument is that you bought yourself some time (with the travel restrictions),” Reid said Monday, as she and Trump spoke over one another. “You didn’t use it to prepare hospitals. You didn’t use it to ramp up testing. Right now, nearly 20 million people are unemployed. Tens of thousands of Americans are dead. How is this ... rant supposed to make people feel confident in an unprecedented crisis?”

Trump on the defensive: A White House coronavirus briefing becomes a campaign rally

“You’re so disgraceful,” Trump responded. “It’s so disgraceful the way you say that.”

Trump then circled back to the travel restrictions from China, but Reid pressed, “But what did you do with the time that you bought? The month of February was a gap.”

Reid continued, pointing to a nearly month-long gap in a campaign ad-style video Trump played at Monday's press briefing, "What did your administration do in February with the time what your travel ban bought you?"

"A lot. A lot. And in fact, we'll give you a list," he responded.

Reid continued to press, "What?" in regards to what the administration did.

"You know you're a fake, your whole network, the way you cover it is fake," Trump responded.

'If you love, you will be hurt'

English Dominican Timothy Radcliffe in a letter to the Dominican Order for the feast of Easter wrote: 

All over the world, we are called to release people from imprisonment. If we are to do that, each of us we must ask what imprisons me? I suppose that it is always the fear of loving fully. 

Love is dangerous. Herbert McCabe OP used to say, ‘If you love, you will be hurt, maybe killed. If you don’t love, you are dead already.’ The Risen Christ is wounded. We need not fear getting hurt. Take the risk of loving more.

Neither should we be oppressed by the fear of death. 

One of my best friends in the Order, David Sanders, died recently of the covid-19. When he learnt that he was dying, he asked me for a good book on death! He was unafraid to look it in the face. He said, ‘If I have been preaching the resurrection all these years, I had better show that I believe in it.’

Finally, on this Easter Day, let us reach out to any of our brothers or sisters in our communities who seem isolated. Let no one feel alone today. Let us open the door for each other.

Let us breathe freely of God’s oxygen, the Holy Spirit who will soon be sent. A sister in the Ecole  Biblique  was suffering from asthma. She was given some oxygen. She said, ‘This is heaven. I can breathe.’ Let us breathe freely the oxygen of God, the Holy Spirit.

Samuel Beckett was born on this day in 1906. And now we are all waiting for Godot? Or are we?

Easter Sunday in the year of the pandemic

Easter greetings to all readers.

At his daily Covid-19 press conference, New York governor Andrew Cuomo asked: "Why is it that the poorest always pay the highest price?"

After the main evening news on German television last evening President Frank-Walter Steinmeier addressed the German people.

He spoke about the importance of neighbourhood-kindness at a local level and at an international level, the importance now for the EU to stand in solidarity. He went on to say that Germany as a nation had both the privilege and indeed the duty to show its good neighbourliness, especially to Spain and Italy.

He spoke kind and reassuring words. President Steinmeier delivered a statesman-like address that was kind and inspiring.

Compare his words to those of US President Donal Trump. The German president's words were uplifting, not a hint of any form of narcissism. In stark comparison to the daily ranting of President Trump.

Pope Francis in his Urbi et Orbi today pleaded with the world to stop producing weapons. A week earlier US President Donald Trump boasted that the US had so much ammunition it did not know what to do with it.

The pope in an interview with the current issue of The Tablet said: "At this time in Europe when we are beginning to hear populist speeches and witness political decisions of this selective kind it’s all too easy to remember Hitler’s speeches in 1933, which were not so different from some of the speeches of a few European politicians now."

The victims of Covid-19

Some interesting figures on the Covid-19 pandemic.

As of yesterday world-wide there were 1,677.256  people confirmed Covid-19 positive, with 101,732 dead from the virus.

In the United States there are 492,995 Covid-19 positive, with 18,248 dead. The population of the US is 327.2 million

In the UK there are 73,758 Covid-19 positive with 8,958 dead. 66.65 million is the population of the United Kingdom

In Germany there are 121,462 Covid-19 positive with 2,754 dead. The German population stands at 83.02 million.

Germany has one of the world's, if not the best, State health system.

This map gives an up-to-date world view of Covid-19.

https://google.com/covid19-map/?hl=en

EU finance ministers agreed yesterday on a €500 billion Corona rescue package. 

Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910) said she  wanted all her patients treated as if they were princes.

A president who knows no shame

Are there any depths to which US Donald Trump will not descend? He always has to have an enemy.

How can people associate with this man?

This is from the official website of the White House.

The White House • April 9, 2020

Voice of America spends your money to speak for authoritarian regimes Voice of America is a global news network funded by American taxpayers. It spends about $200 million each year on its mission to “tell America’s story” and “present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively” to people around the globe. Today, however, VOA too often speaks for America’s adversaries—not its citizens. The Coronavirus pandemic is no exception. Secrecy from the Communist Party of China allowed the deadly virus to spread across the world. Journalists should report the facts, but VOA has instead amplified Beijing’s propaganda. This week, VOA called China’s Wuhan lockdown a successful “model” copied by much of the world—and then tweeted out video of the Communist government’s celebratory light show marking the quarantine’s alleged end. Even worse, while much of the U.S. media takes its lead from China, VOA went one step further: It created graphics with Communist government statistics to compare China’s Coronavirus death toll to America’s. As intelligence experts point out, there is simply no way to verify the accuracy of China’s numbers. The Coronavirus story is just one example of this pattern. Last year, VOA helped highlight the Twitter feed of Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif while he was issuing threats against the U.S. and sharing Russian anti-U.S. propaganda videos. “VOA will represent America,” its guiding Charter reads. And for years after its founding during World War II, VOA served that mission by promoting freedom and democracy across the world for audiences who longed for both. Today, VOA is promoting propaganda instead—and your tax dollars are paying for it.

Vincent Browne on pubs opening on Good Friday

A clever tweet from Vincent Browne today:

Will the pubs have to open on Good Friday?

Warning of word food shortage

This is from  yesterday's Guardian. Isn't clear that food has to run out. How can the chain stay in place if farmers, truck drivers, mechanics fall victim to Covid-19?
On German television last evening a truck driver pointed out how so much of the infrastructure is simply collapsing.
What will happen when Covid-19 hits Africa and India?
Can war be far away?
Where are there world leaders to step forward?
It seems US President Trump is running out of lines.

Foodsupplies across the world will be “massively disrupted” by the coronavirus, and unless governments act the number of people suffering chronic hunger could double, some of the world’s biggest food companies have warned, writes Fiona Harvey, the Guardian’s environment correspondent.

Unilever, Nestlé and PepsiCo, along with farmers’ organisations, the UN Foundation, academics, and civil society groups, have written to world leaders, calling on them to keep borders open to trade in order to help society’s most vulnerable, and to invest in environmentally sustainable food production.

They urge governments to “take urgent coordinated action to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic turning into a global food and humanitarian crisis”. Maintaining open trade will be key, as will investing in food supply chains and protecting farmers in the developed and developing world, they say.

The G20 is coming under increasing pressure to act: a group of Nobel prize-winning economists and former senior development bank officials wrote to the forum advising that trillions of dollars would be needed to help the developing world cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. This week more than 100 former heads of government, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, also called on the G20 to act urgently or risk recurrent outbreaks.

German Army donates ventilators to NHS

This from today's Guardian.

Germany’s army is donating 60 mobile ventilators to the UK following a call for help as the NHS races to get hold of enough life-saving equipment in the runup to the expected peak of the UK’s Covid-19 pandemic in mid-April.

Officials have been racing to obtain ventilators internationally because UK manufacturers have not been able to produce enough in time.

A spokesperson for the German defence ministry confirmed to the Guardian a report in Der Spiegel, according to which the Bundeswehr would send 60 pieces of the life-saving equipment as soon as possible.

Highlighting the urgency of the British situation, the German ministry said it would not invoice the UK for the ventilators, which are made by two specialist German manufacturers, Dräger and Weinmann.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged on this day in 1945

On this day, April 9, 1945 German theologian, pastor and dissident, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged by the German authorities at Flossenbürg concentration camp. Flossenbürg is in Bavaria in the Fichtel Mountains near the German and the then Czechoslovakian border.

Bonhoeffer, who was born on February 4, 1906 in Breslau, now Wrocklaw in Poland, was a founding member of the German Confessing Church.

In 1930 he went to the US where he began postgraduate work but returned to Germany the following year. That year he became a lecturer in systemic theology at the University of Berlin.

In November 1931 he was ordained at St Matthew's Church in Tiergarten, not far from the Dominican church in Oldenburger Straße.

His book, The Cost of Discipleship  is a modern classic and considered to have played an influential role in modern theology.

Bonhoeffer was from day one opposed to the Hitler regime and had many opportunities to stay in the United States but instead returned to Germany. Unlike many of those, who opposed Hitler, Bonhoeffer was objecting to the Hitler government long before the Wehrmacht defeat at Stalingrad.

The Nazis accused him of being part of the July 20th plot against Hitler. He was imprisoned in Tegel, where he remained 18 months before being transferred to Flossenbürg. Tegel prison is still a place of incarceration and is close to Berlin's main airport, soon to be replaced by Berlin-Brandenburg, which is close to the Berlin Schönefeld airport, which was the main airport in the former GDR.

Bonhoeffer was unlucky in that the prison was liberated two short weeks after his execution.

It so happens that on the day of his execution the battle for Königberg, now Kaliningrad in Russia, was ended through the genius, heroism and valour of the Red Army.

Bonhoeffer was murdered just 21 days before Hitler's suicide.

He managed to dodge the Hitler gangsters for many years and then just by the shortest of time the world lost a great man, who had so much to give Germany and the world. 

How medical truth differs from political truth

"As a doctor people believed everything I said, but as a politician nobody believes a word."

- Leo Varadkar

Trump blasts WHO and admits having too much ammunition

At the White House briefing on Monday evening President Donald Trump said: "We have so much ammunition  we do not know what to do with it."

At the Tuesday press conference President Trump  criticised the World Health Organization and said it 'called it wrong' on Covid-19 and that he will be looking into that and put a hold on money they give WHO.

"When they call every shot wrong that's no good," he said about WHO.

He added: "They seem to be very China-centric We will look at end of this of our funding to the WHO."

He later said that WHO must have seen what was happening in Wuhan. And then said that they didn't see it.

He told a story of an African American Democrat who took Hydroxychloroquine. She claimed President Trump saved her life by mentioning it in his press conferences. He told people to try it: "I think it's a great thing to try but I'm not a doctor. I appreciate that woman. She was not a fan of mine. She is now," he said.

When talking about the sacking of the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the resignation of the Acting Secretary of Defence President Trump talked in riddles. At one stage he said that Commander Brett Crozier should have done what he did that he had a bad day and in the next sentence he said the commander was unselfish and doing it for the good of his crew.

He was also critical of the US Postal Service

Chomsky's parrot calls for sovereignty for all the people

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

These are strange times. I’ll be 71 this year, which means I’m cocooned. Indeed, jokingly I have been sending text messages to people signing off, ‘Yours sincerely, The Old Cocooner’.

The media is full of advice as to how we can manage during this time of emergency. 

One thing is for sure, we all want to stay alive and we want others too to stay alive. It’s vitally important we adhere to the medical advice that is being given to us by State agencies.

Last Sunday week the finance minister of the German state of Hesse, Thomas Schäfer died by suicide. His body was found on a high speed rail track near Frankfurft-am-Main.

The premier of Hesse Volker Bouffier said that Schäfer had been very concerned about the Covid-19 pandemic and that he had been working day and night on the crisis and the subsequent financial aspects. 

Bouffier said that Schäfer was pessimistic about how it would be possible to manage the financial situation in Germany post Covid-19.

Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil and his counterpart in Belarus Alexander Lukashenko refuse to believe the seriousness of the situation. 

Indeed, Lukashenko has said that vodka and saunas will ward off Covid-19. 

Donald Trump too, up to quite recently, had been denying the scourge of this virus. That’s the man who said last week that the population of Seoul is 38 million. The population is in fact 9.9 million. But the city is 38 metres above sea level. 

Isn’t the behaviour of far-right leaders odd?

There’s a worldwide lurch to the right over the last number of years.

 

Last week I listened to a talk of Noam Chomsky on YouTube where he compared Trump’s rallies to those of Hitler.

 

Chomsky is an American philosopher and commentator on social affairs.

He argues that the world has been highjacked by neoliberals who are beholden to the markets, large corporations and financiers. Chomsky points out that polio was solved by the intervention of government, who ordered the pharmaceutical companies to play ball. 

He believes that had laboratories been given the necessary resources to do their work properly we would not be where we are today. He goes on to say that there are many civilisational  crisis ahead of us but that Covid-19 might bring people to ask what kind of a world we want. 

He believes the world is in need of a complete change of our current economic system. 

He is concerned about the world’s nuclear stockpile and the looming environmental catastrophe. Chomsky argues that the future lies in democracy and that governments can never be beholden to the markets. 

Governments are exclusively answerable to the people.

A dog barks during the interview. Then later on, the interviewer asks Chomsky if that is his dog, to which he smiles and says yes, and then he is asked if there is a parrot in the room. Chomsky smiles and tells the interviewer that his parrot says: ‘sovereignty to all the people’, and quips that that is better than the wisdom of Washington. 

The link to the Chomsky talk is: 

https://youtu.be/t-N3In2rLI4

In these unprecedented days keep yourself busy, be engaged. There’s so much to do. A young girl in my class one day said to another student: ‘The only people who bore us are ourselves’. I thought they were very wise words. 

There’s loads to do. We need to get to it. And keep an eye out for those who are vulnerable and more fragile than the rest of us.

Who's to live and who's to die?

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych said in a homily on March 22 that the church will do everything possible to prevent doctors having to decide who should should live and die due to a lack of medical supplies.

What exactly does the archbishop mean? We should all be  doing everything to preserve life.

But if there are two patients in a room, one 90, the other 30 and only one can be saved, does it not make sense to save the 30-year-old person?

People in Jena obliged to wear masks

In the eastern German city of Jena from tomorrow people are obliged to wear a mask in shops, on public transport and in public buildings.

Up to yesterday 1,156 people have died in Germany from Covid-19. The German population is 82.79 million.

In the United States Covid-19 deaths registered to date stand at 9,400. The population of the United States is 327.2 million.

Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom are nearing 5,000. Population of the UK is 66.44 million.

German figures are interesting.

Another Trump press conference

It must be said that US President Donald Trump is unique.

His press conference yesterday evening went on and on. He said nothing, nothing at all of substance. He got angry with people who asked 'nasty questions'.

He was recommending people to take a certain drug. One of the reasons for his logic was that there was plenty supplies of the drug available. It's a drug that treats malaria.

His daily press conferences really are a pantomime.

He told the people not to trust the media.

How do the professional experts stand on the podium with him and endure listening to him for well over an hour?

Last evening he talked about people going into ventilators.

He was at his most angry when he was talking about the whistleblower and his impeachment.

The president accused governors of playing political games with ventilators.

And then the moment came when he spoke about Palm Sunday and Easter Day. It was simply jaw-dropping to hear Donald Trump talk about the importance of these important Christian occasions.

What at all is truth and what's reality? What do the words mean for the president of the United States of America?

'The climb ahead is uncertain'

This is a piece by RTE's Fergal Bowers. A good read.

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and comment/2020/0404/1128376-coronavirus-35-days-later/

The European Union at its best

The European Union working at its best is the story of German cooperation with France and Italy in these strange days.

Planes and trains are ferrying Covid-19 patients who need intensive care from Italy and France to German hospitals.

In one example the Archdiocese of Cologne is taking patients from northern Italy to eight Catholic clinics in Cologne.

The patients are being flown from northern Italy in specially prepared Lufthansa Airbuses.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki said that it was an encouraging example of cross-border solidarity and an act of practical love for our neighbours.

Trump's antics can't sit easily with the bereaved

On a day when 1,094 people have died in the United States from Covid-19, President Donald Trump talks nonsense at his now daily press conference. Most days it goes on for over an hour. Today it lasts over an hour and 10 minutes.

Today he made reference again to the fact that there was no ammunition when he became president. And that all the medical shelves were empty.

Any question he did not like he insulted the journalist and refers to it as 'fake news'. On one occasion when he could not answer the question he called it a 'nasty question'.

He was back saying that before the crisis the US had the best economy ever in the history of the United States. And the best economy in the world.

Asked a question about the shortage of ventilators in New York he said: "We happen to think he [the mayor] is well served with ventilators. We'll find out."

He talked about countries ripping off America and how countries have taken advantage of the US.

He said that water is more valuable than oil. Could that be true?

He made a crass comment about the models being used to calculate the surge, giving the word another meaning. What an insult to the  relatives of the 1,094 people who died today.

He finished the press conference talking about election fraud.

Birth is the cause of our death

"The cause of death is birth and the two most important things in our lives are food and love."

 - David Hockney, English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer.

Trump is either a brazen liar or an incompetent clown

At the press conference in the White House on Monday evening US President Donald Trump was asked why he kept saying that America was carrying out the most tests when in fact a number of countries, including South Korean were ahead in per capita terms.

Trump replied with a rambling answer. Somewhere during his ramble he said that the population of Seoul is 38 million.

The population of Seoul is approximately 9.9 million. The city is 38 metres above sea level.

And that's not taken a from 'fake news' outlet. The man said it at the White House briefing on Monday evening.

He also said that he "knows South Korea better than anybody".

A virus that changes the face of the earth

This crisis will certainly change the face of the earth.

- Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, speaking on Austrian state television on March 22.

World total cases stand at 846,100, with 41,400 deaths.

The United States yesterday evening registered 183,477 Covid-19 patients with 3,774 deaths. Over 700 people died from the virus in the United States yesterday.

In Germany yesterday over 67,000 people had been diagnosed with Covid-19 with deaths topping 700.

Austrian priest who said no to Hitler

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Three weeks ago a patient in the hospital where I’m working handed me a book, thinking I might be interested in it. She did say that I was to return it to her. More out of politeness than anything else I took the book.

I went back to my office, left the book on the desk and forgot about it. We have been busy in the hospital these days, so that book was the last thing on my mind.

A few days ago I spotted the book on my desk and brought it home with me.

On the cover is a picture of Adolf Hitler with a smaller picture of Fr Franz Reinisch. The title of the book is ‘I Will Not Serve’ with the sub title ‘The priest who said NO to Hitler’. At the bottom of the cover is the name of the author, David Rice. Shock might be too strong a word but I was sort of flabbergasted. I know David. David was a Dominican priest for a number of years. He headed the Rathmines School of Journalism, later known as Dublin Institute of Technology and these days called Technological University Dublin.

Among the many books David has written is ‘Song of Tiananmen Square’, which is a gripping novel about the massacre in Beijing and the events surrounding it.

David has always had an interest in Germany. After his priestly ordination, along with another Dominican, he set off from Dublin on his motorbike to drive through Germany on his way to Rome.

‘I Will Not Serve’ makes for an interesting read. It tells the story of a young wayward Austrian man, who to the astonishment of his friends and parents, but above all, to the amazement of his girlfriend, decides to study for the priesthood. With a number of hiccups along the way Franz is ordained a priest of the Pallottine Congregation on June 29, 1928.

Rice paints a picture of a man who has a short fuse. He’s tall and can easily intimidate those who might be inclined to disagree with him. 

David readily agrees that the book is a mix of fiction and reality. But what is certain is that Fr Franz Reinisch took a stand against Adolf Hitler. 

It is also factual, that Reinisch spent his short 14 years as a priest, regularly in dispute with his religious superiors. On a personal note, that heartened me.

He realised long before Hitler came to power that he would prove disastrous for Germany and the world.

His fellow priests advised Reinisch to keep quiet and put up with the situation. In 1933  Germany and the Holy See signed a Concordat. Franz was reminded of that and told to obey his superiors.

In March 1941 Franz received his call-up papers to join the German Army.

He refused. His refusal was based on the fact that soldiers were asked to swear an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. He made it clear that he would never do such a thing. 

And for that he was beheaded as a common criminal at Berlin Brandenburg-Görden prison on August 20, 1942, just three days before the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, the battle that heralded the end of Hitler.

In the course of his life Franz influenced many people, including fellow prisoners, and a close friend home on holiday from the front.

The book, published in 2018 by Mentor/Red Stag Press, is a great read.

There are plans afoot to make Franz Reinisch a saint.