February 15, 2023

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - The Vatican is joining the Italian government and NGOs in sending help to the suffering people of Turkey and Syria. According to Vatican News, Pope Francis has provided 10,000 thermal shirts for people who do not have adequate shelter in Turkey and Syria. The pope has also sent financial aid to Syria through the country’s apostolic nunciature, Vatican almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told Vatican News. Boxes of thermal shirts took sail from the port of Naples, Italy, on the morning of February 15, together with other aid from NGOs and the Italian government. The shirts were brought to the southern port city on the evening of February 14 by Krajewski. The shirts and other supplies are expected to arrive in Turkey’s port city of Iskenderun in two days. The small city was one of those heavily damaged by the February 6 earthquakes believed to have killed more than 41,000 people in the region — a death toll that rises daily as rescuers continue to search through building rubble. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253650/pope-francis-contributes-to-earthquake-relief-efforts-in-syria-and-turkey The beatification date has been announced for Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children, who were killed by the Nazis for hiding a Jewish family in their home in Poland. The Archdiocese of Przemyska announced Tuesday that the entire Ulma family — including one unborn child — will be beatified on September 10. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, will preside over the beatification ceremony in Markowa, the village in southeast Poland where the Ulma family was executed in 1944. Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of the couple and their children in a decree signed in December. The World Holocaust Remembrance Center has honored the Ulmas as Righteous