It looks like an ordinary outdoor Mass celebrated by a cardinal. But few could imagine the extraordinary story behind it.
This is Ernest Simoni, a cardinal of the Catholic Church. The place: Spaç Prison, where he spent 28 years as a prisoner under the regime of Albania's communist dictator Enver Hoxha.
The world first heard his story in September, 2014, when Pope Francis visited Albania and listened as the humble priest describe the persecution he endured for his faith.
From the church, they took me to the isolation cells, where they kept me for three months under inhumane conditions. Bound like that, they brought me before the interrogators. The chief told me, “We’ll hang you on the gallows like an enemy, because you told the people that we should all die for Christ if necessary.” They tightened the iron shackles on my wrists so much that they almost cut off my circulation, and I was on the verge of death. They wanted to force me to speak out against the faith and the church hierarchy.
That was only the beginning. After months in solitary confinement and a death sentence, Simoni's punishment was changed to forced labor in the mines. He was finally released in 1990. Nearly three decades later, Pope Francis recognized his witness by making him a cardinal.
POPE FRANCIS
As a priest and bishop, he spent 28 years in prison—the communist prison in Albania, where the persecution was perhaps the cruelest, the cruelest—and he continues to bear witness, as do so many, many, many others like him.
That's why Cardinal Simoni's return to the prison where he nearly died is so pivotal. Even Pope Leo XIV recognized its significance in a letter, writing:
"That place, etched into the memory of the Albanian people, remains one of the most painful chapters of their history. Spaç was a place where many carried the heavy cross of injustice."
At 97 years old, Cardinal Ernest Simoni's life remains a powerful witness to faith under persecution. As Pope Francis once said, Simoni is a "living martyr" of the Catholic Church.
