He Leadeth Me: An Extraordinary Testament of Faith

by Walter J. Ciszek

What could a handful of priests in the camp do, they would say, or what can individual priests dispersed all over the Soviet Union do to combat atheism and the propaganda directed against the Church and religion? What real chance had the Church to survive under such a system, where the people were constantly bombarded with reports that discredited religion as superstition, where the practice of religion was discouraged in so many ways and made difficult by so many subtle pressures, where a man could lose his job or the possibility of an education for his children because he was known to be a believer, or the children themselves were made fun of in school because their parents were believers, or were taught to despise the religious practices an older generation still clung to and talked about at home? How could a few priests, their numbers dwindling because seminaries were closed, ever hope to have much effect against the full power of the government and its propaganda? How could they do much good at all, when even those who still believed or wanted to believe in God were afraid to come to them or be seen with them for fear of reprisals at work, or the condemnation and hostility of friends or neighbors, or pressures brought indirectly to bear upon them and their families in so many ways? Humanly speaking, the task seemed hopeless and the future at best uncertain. It was all too easy to become discouraged, so the comfort of one another’s company and the idea of retreats or d...

Wow, many of these sentiments can be felt today.