 He was the only member of the College of Cardinals to be arrested and taken into custody by the Gestapo during World War II, and for the final years of his life was a critic of the Soviet-backed Communist regime in Poland.His cause of canonization commenced in 1992 and he was granted the title of Servant of God; on 19 May 2018 he was named Venerable after Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue.Second son of a railway worker, he was born in the Upper Silesian village Brzęczkowice (), then ruled by Germany, now part of Mysłowice (), on 5 July 1881.