Vatican beatifies family killed for sheltering Jews

The Ulma family from Poland. Pic/AP

In an unprecedented move, the Vatican on Sunday beatified a Polish family of nine - a married couple and their small children - who were executed by the Nazis during World War II for sheltering Jews.

During a ceremonious Mass, papal envoy Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read out the Latin formula of the beatification of the Ulma family signed last month by Pope Francis. A contemporary painting representing Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma with their children was uncovered near the altar. It is the first time that an entire family has been beatified.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda along with the ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki were attending the celebration in the village of Markowa, in southeastern Poland, where the Ulmas were killed in 1944.

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