Rome & the World: parish that saved 15 Jewish girls • no more tulips from Netherlands

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

On January 21, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) released a statement along with other organizations condemning a campaign against the vaccination of children in the country. The letter of the CNBB stated that “maneuvers to discredit the vaccines, with an incessant artillery of unfounded declarations, have the only goal of harming the parents’ reliance on that which is the correct and unavoidable thing to do: vaccinate the children, securing their protection from a serious infectious agent.”

Although the declaration did not mention Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonoaro, by name, he has been very vocal about his opposition to vaccinating young people. He has claimed that the risk of death from COVID-19 among children and teenagers is “almost zero” and said that he would not let his 11-year-old daughter be vaccinated. 

Crux, English

In Hong Kong, the last pocket of "resistance" of the Church to the great enterprise of sinicization of Catholicism in China could soon fall. This is what Vatican journalist Sandro Magister fears, noting that Beijing has been steadily increasing its hold on the diocese, which until recently was outside the sphere of influence of the Communist Party. Xi Jinping, who officially assumed the title of Great Helmsman last December, recently pushed through a major document that condemns "religious freedom on the Western model." He insisted that churches in China must submit to Party discipline and adapt to "socialist society.” For Sandro Magister, the Vatican's response allows de facto the humiliation that Beijing is putting Chinese Catholics through.

Il Settimo Cielo, English.  

The Catholic Church in Spain has been caught up in dealing with the aftermath of the revelations of sexual abuse by the media outlet El Pais. The Spanish episcopate, however, has also been organizing to help the victims. "Proyecto Repara,” created by the Madrid archdiocesan office in 2020, has helped 72 victims in its second year of existence. It is an independent structure that provides legal, canonical, therapeutic and spiritual support. Family members can also benefit from this assistance: this was the case for 31 of them last year. The majority of victims are not church members: of the 72 people assisted, 34 were abused in their families and nine in a church setting (five priests). 

National Catholic Reporter, English.

After 35 years, the tradition of filling St Peter’s Square with Dutch tulips for Easter comes to an end. Up until the pandemic in 2020, every year the famous square would be filled with flowers for the papal Urbi et Orbi blessing during Easter. The florist Paul Decker, who has been involved in the flower arrangement since 1988 and its official organizer since 2015, said they struggled to find sponsors for the project after it was canceled two years in a row due to the pandemic. Although disappointed, Decker says he is “grateful” to have had “the opportunity to present Dutch floral art and floriculture on an international platform for many years.”

Nederlands Dagblad, Dutch.