[This is the main episode in the book ‘A Seminarian in the SS’ by father Gereon Goldman. He was at that time a 25 year old Franciscan seminarian and had done his philosophy studies, but he had still to do the four years of theology he needed to become a priest. He was conscripted by the German army at the beginning of the war, and was taken into the SS together with other seminarians, as they were educated and intelligent people, and the SS chose the best for its ranks. Himmler himself gave them facilities and coaxed them into acceptance. When he was destined to the Russian front for the Leningrad battle he went to take leave from his family. (Few Germans survived that battle.) Here the story begins:]

‘I was passing through Lindenstrasse when, suddenly, I found myself in front of the convent of the Sisters where, nineteen years before, I had served at Mass for the first time. While I was praying on my knees before the altar, a small, old Sister approached me. She was Sister Solana May, the sacristan who had taught me how to serve Mass, and who had recognised me at once.
 
She asked me point-blank: ‘Do you pray with devotion?’
This was at first sight an unlikely question for a soldier, yet I answered her: ‘You know how I used to pray in this chapel, Sister.’
‘And are you praying to be ordained a priest the next year?’ she insisted.
‘Who? Myself? Next year? That is impossible!’
She gently asked me: Why is it impossible, my son?’
‘Because I haven’t studied theology! I have to complete at least four years in the seminary after the war before being ordained… if I am alive!’
She gave me a sweet smile and told me trustfully: ‘Don’t worry. Next year you will be ordained a priest.’

I knew that was sheer nonsense, and I asked her how she was so sure about it. To my astonishment she brought out a notebook from a drawer and gave it to me to examine it. There it was written that on the day of my mother’s death she had begun praying for me to become a priest as soon as I reached the required age. She had offered prayers and sacrifices together with her whole community for nineteen years now for me to become a priest in the Franciscan Order. She had even asked the Sisters in other convents – numbering 280 – to pray with them, and they had done so. She also prayed to many deceased Sisters, now in Heaven, to pray for that small Mass server to become a priest. Then she told me: ‘Since Holy Scripture assures us that all our prayers will be heard, there is no doubt that you’ll be a priest next year.’
I answered her: ‘There is still a law in the Church to the effect that nobody can be ordained a priest if he has not studied theology, and even the most fervent prayers, dear Sister, cannot change that.’
She asked me: ‘Who has made that law?’
‘Well, the pope.’
Then she laughed happily: ‘It’s quite simple, then. Since the pope has made the law, the pope can dispense from it.’
‘I have not studied theology, and I am not in Rome.’
‘Then you’ll have to go to Rome. I’ll be praying from today that you may go to Rome and see the pope. Then you’ll be able to ask him for your ordination.’
I was left without words before that mad trust, and then taking out of my pocket the order to start the next day for the Russian front I told her: ‘Tomorrow morning I’m going to Russia. The pope does not live there, Sister.’
She added: ‘You need the help of the Mother of God, the mother of all priests. So you’ll first peregrinate to Lourdes and you will ask for her help. Everything will go smoothly.’

The next day at eight o’clock in the morning I arrived at the railway station with the two hundred soldiers under me. We boarded the train which was to start at 9:10. Five minutes before, I came down from the train to check everything. Suddenly a car approached with an officer, an armed soldier, and a sergeant in uniform. The officer asked me my name and told me coldly: ‘You are under arrest.’ And to the sergeant: ‘Take charge of him’. I handed him over my papers as commander and went to sit in the car with the armed soldier behind me. They took me to jail. I began to think that my association with a group that was plotting to kill the Führer had been discovered. I was three days in jail. On the third day a message came from Berlin. The commander opened it before me. To my surprise I was to be shifted immediately to the south of France. ‘Where?’ I asked. ‘To Pau’, he answered. ¿Do you know where is Lourdes? Pau is just by its side.’ So I didn’t go to Russia, and I went to Lourdes. Sister Solana’s faith was justified.

From Pau, where I visited Lourdes, I was sent to Italy and reached Rome. I went to the German embassy with a secret message for one of the officials involved in the plot to kill Hitler, Herr von Kessel. I was the messenger between them, I pronounced my password before him and repeated from memory three times word by word the message that had been given to me for him as nothing could be put in writing. Herr von Kessel told me: ‘You have rendered a signal service to our cause. Can I do anything for you?’ I told him I wanted to see the pope. He told me that was impossible, but I insisted, he took the phone and after several calls he gave me the time I should present myself at the Vatican. I was received by a monsignor who asked me what I was going to tell the pope. I answered I was going to ask him for permission to be ordained a priest.

- Have you successfully completed your seminary studies?
- No. I’ll finish them after the war.
- Then it is absolutely impossible.
- It’s the pope that has to say that, not you.
- I forbid you to mention the issue to the pope.
- I’m a soldier, and if necessary I’ll force my way in and will cause quite a scandal.
-Well, you may go, but do not mention your ordination.

The pope was Pius XII and I spoke with him about the work of the military chaplains in the war. Then I told him:

- I humbly ask you to admit me to the holy priesthood to be able to confess soldiers and prisoners.
- Do you have the certificate of your studies?
- Yes, of my philosophy studies.
- What about theology?
- Not yet.
- What do you mean? Have you not studied theology?
- I’ll study it after the war.
- But you cannot be a priest without those studies!
- I’ve served Mass since I was eight, and I did it very well. I know all the ceremonies of the Mass.
- But here we don’t ordain Mass servers!
- Besides, Holy Father, I’ve taken Holy Communion to wounded and dying soldiers in the battlefront.
- How can you do that if you are not a priest?
- A bishop gave me permission. I’ve done it many times. And I carry consecrated hosts with me all the time for that purpose.

I showed him the bishop’s letter and I reverently took out the small box in which I always carried with me the consecrated hosts for their protection and distribution as I never parted with them, and I knelt in silence. The pope understood and he too knelt down. Then he told me to wait outside and the document signed by him would be given me. And so it happened.

I went back to the front. I was taken prisoner by the British. They took me from one prison to the other till Argel. There I was able to contact the bishop, I showed him the pope’s letter with the seal of the Vatican on it, he examined it, made some inquiries about me, and was satisfied. That was how a French bishop ordained priest a German soldier belonging to the SS. The French general of the garrison attended my first Mass, knelt down to kiss the anointed hands of a German prisoner, and asked me my blessing. Sister Solana’s prayers had been heard.’