In an unprecedented initiative, the Vatican betaified on Sunday to a Polish family of nine members, a couple and their young children, who were executed by the Nazis during World War II for hosting Jewish people.
Last year, Pope Francis declared the Ulma family, fervent Catholics, including the baby Wiktoria Ulma was pregnant with. That paved the way for the beatification Mass in the family’s hometown of Markowa in southeastern Poland. “May this Polish family, which represented a ray of light in the darkness of the Second World War, be for all of us a model to imitate in the impulse of kindness, in service to those in need,” he said from Rome this Sunday.
The Ulma were murdered in their home by Nazi German troops and local police under Nazi control in the early hours of March 24, 1944, along with the eight Jews who were hiding in the houseapparently after being betrayed.
Josef Ulma, 44 years old, was a farmer, Catholic activist and amateur photographer who documented local and family life. He lived with his wife of 31 years, Wiktoria, daughters Stanislawa, 7 years old; Barbara, 6, and Maria, 18 months, and their children Wladyslaw, 5 years old; Franciszek, 3 years old; and Antoni, 2.
They died with them Saul Goldman, 70 years oldalong with their children Baruch, Mechel, Joachim and Mojzeszas well as Golde Grunfeld and her sister, Lea Didner, with their young daughter Reszlaaccording to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which has thoroughly documented the history of the Ulma.
The Catholic Church faced a dilemma with beatifying Wiktoria’s unborn baby and declaring him a martyr because, among other things, he had not been baptized, which is a requirement for beatification.
The Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints issued a clarification on September 5 indicating that the baby had been born during the murders and received a “baptism of blood” from his martyred mother.
More than 30,000 people were expected to attend Sunday’s mass, the first time an entire family had been beatified.
Poland’s ruling conservative party has emphasized family values and the heroism of Poles during the war, and the ceremony was a welcome addition to its intense political campaign ahead of the Oct. 15 election, in which the party Law and Justice aspires to win a third term, something unprecedented in the country.
After beatification, a miracle would need to be attributed to the intercession of the Ulma for them to be canonized, as the process in which the Church designates saints is called.
The Yad Vashem Institute of Israel recognized the Ulma in 1995 as people who gave their lives trying to save Jews during the Holocaust.
In Poland they are a symbol of the bravery of thousands of Poles who risked everything to help the Jews. A decree by the Nazi occupiers declared that any aid to Jews was punishable by summary execution.
Poland was the first country invaded by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. Some 6 million of its citizens died during the war, half of them Jews.
(with information from AP)
Source-www.infobae.com