Italian journalist to be beatified for helping Jews escape persecution

Journalist who helped saved Jews from Holocaust is on the path to be named a saint.

An Italian journalist and father of seven, who helped hundreds of Jews to escape Nazi persecution, will be beatified on June 15 in the Italian city of Carpri.Odoardo Focherini who died aged 37 in the Hersbrueck Nazi concentration camp will be beatified in recognition of the lives he saved and the people he helped.

Organisers of his beatification Mass are expecting 4,000 people and approximately 20 bishops to attend the Mass which will place Focherini on the path to canonisation.

Odoardo Focherini will be the first Italian beatified for helping Jewish people during the Holocaust.Focherini helped Jews escape Nazi death camps by providing them with false documents so that they could cross the Swiss border to safety. He was eventually arrested and died in the camp of Hersbruck from an infected leg.

via CatholicHerald