CV NEWS FEED // The relics of the martyred Ulma family, the first-ever to be beatified as a family in the Catholic church, will visit Polish parishes around the world, Poland’s episcopate told CatholicVote.
“Countries such as England and Wales, France, Germany or Hungary will receive relics of the Blessed Ulma Family from Markowa, which will visit Polish parishes abroad,” announced Bishop Piotr Turzynski, the Delegate of the Polish Bishops’ Conference for the Pastoral Care of Polish Emigrants.
The announcement was made during a meeting of members and consultants of the Team of the Polish Episcopate next to the Delegate for the Pastoral Care of Polish Emigrants, held on February 9 in Warsaw.
In September 2023, CatholicVote reported that the Vatican officially beatified the Ulma family, who were martyred for hiding Jews in their home during World War II.
As Bishop Turzynski emphasized, the peregrination of the relics of the Blessed Ulma Family in Polish parishes in Germany will consist of weekly meetings of various prayer communities, during which one day will be specially dedicated to people from outside the Polish community.
“The idea is that the others will be able to learn about the history of the Ulma Family and pray together through their intercession,” Turzynski said. “It will be a time for integration, but above all we want to show the beautiful Family who generously lived their faith and served the Jews, saving them, paying the highest price for this, their lives.”
“The beatification of the Ulma family as a whole, including several children who were under the age of reason, points to the reality of the family as the domestic church,” noted Fr. John Paul Walker, O.P., pastor of St. Gertrude Parish in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Walker told CatholicVote:
“If we believe that the Church universal is indeed “one body” (cf. Rom 12:5) then so too ought we to see the domestic church as one body, in which all the parts work together.
The faith and charity lived by Józef and Wiktoria permeated their children and, despite their young age, they all “acted as one” in this supreme gift of charity (even if the little ones had only a childlike understanding of what was happening).”
The liturgical feast day of the Ulma Family is celebrated on July 7, the date of Józef and Wiktoria’s wedding.
