Dom Simon Jubani passes away

TIRANA, July 12 – Dom Simon Jubani, one of the most well-known Catholic priests in Albania, passed away Tuesday. He was 84.
Simon Jubani was the first priest to hold a public service following the fall of communism in 1990. During the communist dictatorship he was imprisoned almost continuously since the imposition of the religion ban from 1967 to 1989.
Dom Jubani Simon was born in Shkodra. At the age of 16 he began his religious training at the seminary in 1943 the Jesuits in his native city. Following the closure of this church school by the communists, he continued his education at a public high school.
During 1957/58 he was a deacon in the Mirdita active. After his ordination in May 1958, he was just there as a pastor. In 1964 he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years of political justice labor camp. Much of the time he spent in the notorious prison of Burrel in solitary confinement because he refused to work in the mines. There was also Jubani often tortured. In 1988 he was first released on parole. He soon came again to prison because he did not follow the code of silence by the communist authorities. His final release was on 13 April 1989.
In November 1990 Simoni the first public mess in Shkodra after the religious ban was lifted This service was an important landmark in the 1990 anti-communist liberation movement in Albania.
In 1991 Dom Simon was the first Albanian clergy whom Pope John Paul II received in Rome, where they discussed the reconstruction of the Albanian church.
In the nineties, Dom Simon Jubani went to various Catholic universities in Belgium, France and the United States as a visiting lecturer. In Albania, he worked again as a priest in Shkodra and the adjacent former predominantly Catholic regions.
The funeral was held Thursday.