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Martin called Adrienne von Speyr Hans Urs von Balthasar's "beloved".  John Paul II Beatified? p. 27:Martin thought she preceded Balthasar to heaven!

So, Fr, Martin SAID she preceded ...  Unfortunately, it's hard to know what Fr. Martin actually THOUGHT, since he would often contradict himself.

I just read the chapter about Father Martin being tortured, first in Czech Republic then Kiev.

Nothing about that story makes sense, not the chronology, not the individuals mentioned, not the alleged reasons he was there.

Says he was already a prisoner by eary 1957 after having been consecrated a bishop by Cardinal Tardini.  Father Tardini was not consecrated a bishop nor made a Cardinal until December of 1958, by Roncalli.  Then Fr. (Bishop?)_ Martin allegedly returns to Rome after the Vatican diplomatic corps secured his release and had a brief meeting with Pope Pius XII ... who was no longer alive when Tardini was functioning.

Earlier, it said that Father Martin had written some book about the Dead Sea scrolls, which was published in early 1958 (that book does exist and was published in 1958 ... I looked it up) ... but he would have just been released from prison after nearly 2 years there, so how did he write this book while being tortured in prison?

That chapter detailed some extreme tortures he allegedly underwent there, as well as describing various visions, locutions, and other mystical experiences, including some that he experienced as a young childre.

So, the story goes that he was consecrated a bishop to go into Czech Republic for the sole mission of confronting a Czech priest who had gotten married and then if he didn't repent, he was to laicize this priest.  His contact there was some Czech Bishop named Bishop Hlonoc.  I can find no evidence that a bishop by that name existed, and I tried searching on variants of the name, not on catholic-hierarchy, nor anywhere else.  Also, this bishop was loyal to the Holy See and also attempting to discipline the priest, so why did Fr. Martin need to be a bishop, and train for months about how to sneak into Czech Republic, including by US paratroopers, so that he could be parachuted in by stealth ... why did he need to do all this just to deliver a laicization to this priest.  He needn't have been a bishop just to take the news, PLUS, why couldn't that Bishop Hlonoc done the same thing himself?

None of this makes ANY sense, not the persons, not the times, not the rational for his spending months learning how to parachute in just to reprimand a single degenerate priest.  I find this story to be filled with more holes than Swiss cheese, to the point of being borderline absurd.

Not sure what to make of this ... whether Marro made it all up.  But then couldn't he spend 10 minutes doing research to get the names and places correct?  Whether or not he was making this up, just a tad bit of research could have ironed this all out.

Or was Fr. Martin making up these ridiculous stories, and was this a typical blend of "faction" where maybe some truth to it but interwoven with nonsense for some reason?

We do know Fr. Martin was in fact a Jesuit priest, well educated, well trained, etc., ordained in 1954 ... so surely he would have known that these stories are preposterous, and you'd think he would have not delivered such obviously incorrect nonsense.  That leads me to believe that Marro made this stuff up.  And that gets back to why these sensational stories had never come out before, of a Bishop Martin being tortured for nearly two years behind the Iron Curtain.  ONLY NOW do they come out?