Friday 28 January 2022
1 – The Roman parish that saved 15 Jewish children
2 – Brazilian bishops accuse Jair Bolsonaro of preventing child vaccination campaigns
3 – In Hong Kong, the Church at the mercy of the new “Great Helmsman”
4 – The archdiocese of Madrid helped 72 victims of abuse in 2021
5 – The Netherlands will no longer send tulips for the Urbi et Orbi
The Roman parish that saved 15 Jewish children
In light of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Vatican journalist Salvatore Cernuzio tells a story of hope surrounding a Roman parish. During the Nazi roundup of Jews in Rome in 1943, the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti, a few minutes away from the Colosseum, hid a group of 15 young girls with the help of the priest, some nuns and the neighbors. The girls had been sent to live with the sisters in a nearby convent and when the soldiers would patrol the streets and danger seemed close, the nuns would lead them to the church. There they would hide in a narrow, dark tunnel under the bell tower for days at a time. Today, the drawings they etched on the walls, along with their names, are still visible.
Vatican News, Italian
And today we celebrate...