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The beatification of a Polish Catholic family who were murdered in March 1944 for aiding Jews, took place on Sunday 10 September in Markowa, where they lived. Cardinal Semeraro celebrated the beatification Mass in Markowa alongside 1,000 priests and 80 cardinals and bishops from Poland and abroad, with over 32,000 faithful registered to attend - the Chief Rabbi of Poland was also present at the Mass.
The beatified family members are Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their children Stanisława, Barbara, Władysław, Franciszek, Antoni, Maria, and an unnamed child.
Ahead of the beatification, Pope Francis upheld the Ulma family’s collective witness of faith in giving their lives to protect persecuted Jews during World War II. Writing in a letter on behalf of Pope Francis, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute of the Vatican Secretariat of State said:
“May the sacrifice made by the family of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their children, who did not hesitate to give their lives to help eight people of Jewish origin, be for us and future generations a symbol of faithfulness to values that must never be betrayed even under threat of death.”
The letter was sent to Fr Miroslaw Kalinowski, the Rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, which published the book ‘Martyred and Blessed Together: The Extraordinary Story of the Ulma Family’.
Archbishop Peña Parra noted that Pope Francis frequently laments that our world is torn by a “third World War fought piecemeal" and highlighted the Pope's hope that:
“recalling the events of World War II, which resulted in the extermination of millions, including innocent children, and the Holocaust experienced by the Jews, will encourage reflection on the current global situation.”
A book about the Ulma family 'Martyred and Blessed Together: The Extraordinary Story of the Ulma Family' has been written by Manuela Tulli, an Italian journalist with the ANSA news agency, and Fr Pawel Rytel-Andrianik, head of the Polish section of Vatican News, and deputy director of the Heschel Center of the Catholic University of Lublin.
The book explores the life and martyrdom of the Ulma family during World War II, and the Holocaust, offering a glimpse of the Jews who perished with the Ulmas: Shaul Goldman and his four sons, Lea Didner and her daughter Reszla, and Golda Grünfeld with photographs taken by Józef Ulma. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, contributed the book’s preface and introductions, respectively.
Source: CBCEW
