Overview
- Cardinal Jean‑Claude Hollerich presided at Notre‑Dame on December 13 before about 2,500 attendees, with the cathedral closed for the day and the Mass broadcast live on KTO.
- Those honored belonged to the 1943 Mission Saint‑Paul, a covert chaplaincy that ministered to French workers sent to Germany under the Service du travail obligatoire.
- The Vatican cleared the cause on June 20 with a papal decree recognizing death in hatred of the faith, culminating decades of documentation begun in 1988.
- French and German bishops took part as Hollerich addressed the faithful in French and German, underscoring the ceremony’s reconciliation focus.
- Historical records cite a December 1943 Gestapo ordinance that spurred arrests and deportations, with many dying in camps such as Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen and Neuengamme in 1944–1945.