To the Band of Brothers: September 11, 2023

It’s about time you heard from me. We are already into the third week of the school year, and I hadn’t sent out a Band of Brothers email. Trust me, it’s not because I don’t have anything to say. It’s just that I needed some time to get the ordinary flow of things going before the creative juices started flowing. As my father says, “hay que calentar los motores” (“Got to warm up the motor”).

 

What warmed me up to writing this morning was a beautiful thing that happened yesterday. It was actually an amazing thing that carried along with it two unprecedented firsts. During a ceremony in southeastern Poland, in a town called Markowa, the Vatican beatified a family of nine. As you probably know, beatification is the process by which the Catholic Church officially recognizes a deceased person as worthy of veneration by the faithful because his or her life was holy. Evidence, after many years of study and evaluation, testimonies by thousands of people and even miracles assure the Church the person is in heaven and their name can by invoked for intercession. Beatification is the last step before canonization, being declared a saint in the Church.

 

Fortunately for us, there are thousands of blesseds and saints who for over 2000 years have given incredible witness to the faith and are amazing examples of what it is to live a holy, Catholic life. But what is most amazing about this particular beatification is that it is the first time a whole family is beatified together. Jozef Ulma and his wife Wiktoria, along with their children Stanislawa, Barbara, Maria, Wladyslaw, Franciszek, and Antoni, were raised to the state of blessed together. More amazing still, it is the first time in the history of the Catholic Church that a child who was in the womb was also beatified.

 

Let me explain what happened. The Ulma family lived in Poland and were farmers. They were very faithful Catholics who were very active in their local parish. They were known to be very generous and loving. In 1944, eight Jews who were running from the Nazi police knocked on their door. Jews were being slaughtered by the millions by Hitler’s goons and these eight had found a way to escape. Knowing the danger it posed to the entire family, but moved with compassion and a commitment to loving God and neighbor, the Ulma family brought them into their home and hid them. Then, on March 24, 1944, the Nazi police got word the Ulma family was hiding the Jews. They barged into the house and killed the whole family, including the baby Wiktoria carried in her womb.

 

It is such a sad story and one that is difficult to fathom, yet it happened during the horrors of the holocaust. But in the midst of such tragedy, it is amazing to see how there are people and families who heroically stand up and do extraordinary things. The Ulma family is an example of how a whole family was committed to living the gospel of Jesus Christ, even if it meant the surrendering of their lives. Every night when Jozef and Wiktoria would kneel with their children and pray the rosary or walked them to Mass on Sundays or served the poor of the village, they were living the gospel of Jesus Christ and preparing their children to live holy lives.

 

The fact the Church has also beatified a child in the womb is also an amazing thing. The Church is confirming and reconfirming the truth of the sanctity of human life. Life begins at conception and is sacred from that moment until the moment of natural death. The baby in the womb of Wiktoria is also a martyr and will also be counted among the blessed and eventually canonized of the Church. This is a powerful statement at a time we need it most.

 

Fortunately, we live in a country that doesn’t pose dangers like the one lived in Europe during the 1940s, but we have our own challenges. Living a holy life, a life focused on love and truth, a life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, has its challenges. When we are mocked or ridiculed by others, when we sacrifice our own needs for the needs of others, when we choose to do the good and avoid evil, we are living heroically and moving towards sanctification. We too are called to be one day raised to a state of blessed and then canonized. We too are called to be saints. When you get a chance, look up the story of the Ulma family on the Internet. It is definitely worth it.

 

Auspice Maria,

Fr. Willie ‘87