Cardinal Parolin plants tree in Vatican Gardens as a tribute to Ulma family

By Salvatore Cernuzio 

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, presided over a tree-planting ceremony in the Vatican Gardens on Wednesday to pay homage to the heroic Ulma family.

The ceremony took place just a few steps from the Lourdes Grotto, a place of prayer for Popes and pilgrims.

It is the same tree—an apple tree—that Józef Ulma wanted to plant in the garden of his house in Markowa, Poland, before Nazi troops stormed the house to slaughter him, his wife Wiktoria, and their seven children.

The Nazis had judged the family, whose members would later be known and venerated over time as the "Good Samaritans of Markowa," guilty of having given refuge to eight Jews fleeing persecution.

Pope Francis recognized their martyrdom in September 2023 as he elevated all the members of the family to the honor of the altars. Already in 1995, the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem described Józef and Wiktoria as "Righteous Among the Nations."

The ceremony in the Vatican Gardens took place eighty years after their sacrifice, with Cardinal Parolin calling it "a shocking story." 

At the same time, he added, their story offers a symbol of Christian love that goes so far as to offer one's life for others, which led to the decision to carry out a commemorative act in the heart of the Vatican.

Authorities present to pay homage

Next to Cardinal Parolin were Minister Grażyna Ignaczak-Bandych, Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, and Władysław Ortyl, President of Podkarpacie, the region from which the group of pilgrims came whom Pope Francis greeted on Wednesday at the end of the General Audience. Also present at the ceremony were about 30 members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See and Archbishop Adam Szal, Metropolitan of Przemyśl.

Together, they prayed "for peace and reconciliation" and applauded when Minister Ignaczak-Bandych used the shovel to put the earth around the "Domestic Glogierówka Apple Tree."

The minister then read a letter from the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, in which the head of state praised the "heroic love" of the Ulma family and "thousands of other silent heroes," expressing his wish that it would serve as "a beacon of hope for all those who fear the spread of evil in the world."

"This," reads the letter, "is the goal of a campaign launched in the Podkarpacie region with the slogan 'You will recognize them by their fruits,' through which apple trees are planted - one, in 2023, also in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw - as 'living, long-lived, and fruitful monuments of remembrance and gratitude to the great people who were the Poles who saved Jews during the Second World War.'"

Example of evangelical love

Cardinal Parolin referred to the newly-planted apple tree as a "monument," detailing the story of the Ulma martyrs as "an example of evangelical love lived to the fullest, even to the gift of life."

"Today," said the Cardinal, "we are here to remember and plant an apple tree as a perennial reminder of what happened on March 24, 1944, in Markowa, Poland, occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War. Józef Ulma, together with his wife Wiktoria, decided to give refuge to eight Jews from families they knew. According to the testimony of their neighbors, helping those in need was normal for them, and hosting the Jews was a considered decision. Many times they were told, 'Don't hide the Jews because you'll get in trouble.' And Józef replied firmly, 'They are people. I will never drive them away.'"

The martyrdom of the Ulma family

The Ulmas, Cardinal Parolin continued, were reported to the authorities, and a patrol of Nazi gendarmes came to their house. They were all killed: first the eight Jews, then Wiktoria and her husband, so that the villagers would see the punishment awaiting those who hid Jews.

The children began to scream, but they too were murdered. In the space of only a few minutes, 17 people died.

Even this child, "whose name is known only to heaven, the palm of martyrdom has been recognized."

In particular, the Secretary of State focused on the figure of Józef, not just a simple farmer but also a "great social activist and a great innovator," who specialized in vegetable and fruit cultivation and beekeeping, with a passion for photography that led him to build his own camera and photographic laboratory.

"The apple tree that is being planted today comes directly from a tree grafted by Blessed Józef Ulma," emphasized the Cardinal, adding, "We truly feel admiration in the face of the testimony of this family."

He also paid "homage to all those who, in the tragic moments of history, risked their lives to help the persecuted, and during the Second World War, especially the Jews."

Warning against totalitarian ideologies

Cardinal Parolin then invoked "the gift of reconciliation and peace in the world," accompanying the invocation with an appeal. "We want to emphasize how all totalitarian ideologies everywhere and always bring hatred, suffering, and death, and cause devastating tragedies," he said.

"My hope," he added, "is that this initiative, thanks to the example and intercession of the blessed martyrs Ulma, will help us to live the words of our Lord: This is my commandment: 'that you love one another, as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.'"

This, concluded the Secretary of State, "is the only way to build a more just, more fraternal, more solidary world."

After the greetings and the group photo, before the blessing, the Cardinal invited those present to recite three Glory Be prayers and to address another prayer to God, because "He helps us to live with the same feelings and attitudes as the Ulmas. It is the only way to build something new—this love that knows how to extend to the gift of one's life."

"This is a shocking story of the Ulma family, but a great example for all of us," he said, "especially in this situation of the world in which we find ourselves."