When the Ulma family is beatified Sept. 10 as martyrs who gave their lives to protect Jews during the Holocaust, it may be the first time the Catholic Church has beatified an entire, specific family together, as well as the first beatification of an unborn child.
Uruguay’s Catholic Church celebrated the beatification of Bishop Jacinto Vera May 6. Blessed Bishop Vera was not only the first bishop of Montevideo, the country’s capital, but is considered the father of the local church.
Kelly Lindquist had prayed her husband, Ian, would be healed through the intercession of Servants of God Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their family.
Each pilgrimage stop offered an opportunity for veneration of the relic, followed by Mass.
The pope signed decrees Feb. 23 recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of an Italian religious sister and the heroic virtues of five others: two laywomen, two priests and a religious woman.
Bishop Vera’s path to sainthood not only reflects the country’s history, but also the new path for the church in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay under the stewardship of Pope Francis, an Argentine.
Even before consideration of these three, the bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance estimated there are more than 85 sainthood causes at various stages of the beatification or canonization process in at least 55 U.S. dioceses.
Beatifying Blessed John Paul I, Pope Francis praised the late pope, who served for only 33 days in 1978, for showing the world God’s goodness and for living the Gospel without compromise.
