Giuseppe Fietta (6 November 1883 – 1 October 1960) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1924 to 1958, including a stint as Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina from 1936 to 1953. He was made a cardinal in 1958.
Franz Eugen Schlachter (28 July 1859 – 12 January 1911) was a revivalist preacher, classical scholar and the translator of the German language Schlachter Bible.
He was the son of Joseph Franz Schlachter, a business man from Mühlhausen/Alsace in France. At the time of his confirmation he visited the assembly (congregation) of Robert Pearsall Smith, the leader of the Holiness Movement, in Basel. At the same time he experienced conversion to Jesus Christ. As his parents lacked money he left school to begin vocational training for a merchant. He continued to study Ancient Greek and Hebrew during this time.
From 1878 to 1882 he studied at a seminary in Basel. In 1882 he began his service as a preacher of the Evangelische Gesellschaft of the Bern canton. In 1884 he was baptised by a preacher from the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde in Thun named Konrad Werndli. In the same year he travelled to Great Britain, to visit the assemblies of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and American evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody.
He wrote many theological and biographical books about, among others, Herodes I (Herod the Great), Resli, a little boy, and Moody. In 1888 he published a short pamphlet named "Brosamen von des Herrn Tisch". In the first part he wrote about the Bible and belief in Jesus Christ. In the second part he wrote about animals and nature. In the third part he described men of God such as Moody and the history of the church. The last part is a report on the political scene in Europe. The pamphlet was distributed to farms in the Emmental.
In 1890 he founded a new assembly in Biel. Subsequently, he began his translation of the Bible, beginning with the book of Job in 1893. In 1905 the Miniaturbibel (Miniature Bible) was completed, named for its size (1 cm thick), small enough to carry in a pocket. The translation was faithful to the Greek and Hebrew transcripts.
In 1907 he went to Bern to join the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde as a pastor.
He was married to Maria, with whom he had four children. In 1911 he died in Bern of a stomach illness.
This article incorporates text from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 19 December 2005.
Bernard Park Brockbank, Sr. (May 24, 1909 – October 11, 2000) was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1962 to his death. Brockbank was an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve from 1962 to 1976 and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1976 to 1980. One of his major contributions was heading the Mormon Pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1964 and 1965.
Aage Müller-Nilssen (29 February 1940 – 1 May 2022) was a Norwegian theologian and organizational leader. Having worked as priest in Oslo from 1968, he served as secretary-general for the Church City Mission from 1974 to 1999, and subsequently worked as priest for the organization.He was decorated Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 2005.
Marcial Maciel Degollado (March 10, 1920 – January 30, 2008) was a Mexican Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement. He was general director of the Legion from 1941 to 2005. Throughout most of his career, he was respected within the church as "the greatest fundraiser of the modern Roman Catholic church" and as a prolific recruiter of new seminarians. Late in his life, Maciel was revealed to have been a longtime drug addict who sexually abused many boys and young men in his care. After his death, it came to light that he had also maintained sexual relationships with at least four women, one of whom was a minor at the time. He fathered as many as six children, two of whom he is alleged to have sexually abused.In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI removed Maciel from active ministry, based on the results of an investigation that he had started in his previous role as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before his election as Pope in April 2005. Maciel was ordered "to conduct a reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry". He died in 2008. On March 25, 2010, a communiqué on the Legion's website acknowledged as factual the "reprehensible actions" by Maciel, including sexual abuse of minor seminarians. In May 2010, the Vatican denounced Maciel's actions and appointed a Papal Delegate to oversee the order and its governance.
Jorge Volio Jiménez (August 26, 1882 – October 20, 1955) was a Costa Rican priest, soldier and politician.
Juan José Gerardi Conedera (27 December 1922 – 26 April 1998) was a Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop and human rights defender who was long active in working with the indigenous Mayan peoples of the country.
In the 1970s, he gained government recognition of indigenous languages as official languages, and helped secure permission for radio stations to broadcast in indigenous languages. In 1988 he was appointed to the government's National Reconciliation Commission to begin the process of accounting for abuses during the civil war. He also worked on the associated Recovery of Historical Memory Project, which was sponsored by the Catholic Church.
Two days after he announced the release of the project's report on victims of the Guatemalan Civil War, Guatemala: Nunca Más!, in April 1998, Gerardi was attacked in his garage and beaten to death.
In 2001, in the first trial in a civilian court of members of the military in Guatemalan history, three Army officers were convicted of his death and sentenced to long prison terms. A priest was convicted as an accomplice and also sentenced.
He was declared a martyr by Pope Francis in 2020, clearing the way for his eventual beatification.
Ingrid Bjerkås (8 May 1901 – 30 November 1980) was a Norwegian theologian and the first female minister in the Church of Norway.
