Moravian village honours priests executed by communists as beatification nears

People gathered in the village of Tupesy in south Moravia to honour the memory of Catholic priests Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, who were executed by the communist regime in the 1950s in connection with the so-called Babice case. A reliquary for the two men was also cast during the commemoration. Both priests were arrested before the murders of local officials in Babice and were later convicted in what historians describe as a fabricated trial. They were rehabilitated in 1990, and last year Pope Leo XVI approved their beatification as martyrs of the communist regime. The ceremony is scheduled to take place in early June in Brno.