Trials – United Yam

‘Triumph of the Heart’ tells powerful story of St. Maximilian Kolbe

unitedyam September 6, 2025

From left to right: Actor Marcin Kwaśny as Maximilian Kolbe and Christopher Sherwood as Karl Fritzsch in “Triumph of the Heart.” / Credit: Triumph of the Heart movie/Sherwood Fellows

CNA Staff, Sep 6, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Anthony D’Ambrosio grew up Catholic and always viewed his faith as one of the most important aspects of his life — even entering seminary for a brief period of time. However, he felt called to leave seminary and go into youth ministry. He fell in love and was about to get engaged when he was diagnosed with a life-altering medical condition — a chronic mold infection with a major symptom being severe and even life-threatening insomnia.

D’Ambrosio’s relationship ended, he couldn’t maintain a job, and his faith unraveled. It was during the sleepless nights that he began to discover the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe, which led to creating a movie about the saint — “Triumph of the Heart.” It will be released in theaters on Sept. 12.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar, priest, and martyr who volunteered to die in place of another man in the German death camp of Auschwitz. Kolbe spent the last 14 days of his life in a starvation bunker alongside nine other men. “Triumph of the Heart” focuses on Kolbe’s last days on earth spent in the starvation bunker.

While writing the film, D’Ambrosio began to see his own battle with insomnia as “being a bit of a stand-in for starvation,” he told CNA in an interview. The fact that Kolbe was also able to accompany three other men “to that miracle of staying alive for 14 days without food or water with him” was also meaningful for D’Ambrosio because “I knew that if Kolbe could have helped men in that situation to find a reason to live, that he could help me to find a reason to live.”

As D’Ambrosio spent more and more time with Kolbe’s story, he began to “see what true sanctity looked like, what love looked like.”

“This idea that he had volunteered to take on the suffering of these men in order to be with them — that really began to melt my own heart and to open me back up to God’s presence,” he added.

It was then that D’Ambrosio began his journey to create the film. He began to write the script, pilgrimaged several times to Poland to learn more about Kolbe, lived with the Franciscan friars in Poland, studied his story with the librarian who handles his archives, and ultimately worked with an American crew and partnered with Poles to tell the martyr’s story.

A portrayal seen in "Triumph of the Heart" of Maximilian Kolbe, along with the other men, in the starvation bunker. Credit: Triumph of the Heart movie/Sherwood Fellows — A portrayal seen in “Triumph of the Heart” of Maximilian Kolbe, along with the other men, in the starvation bunker. Credit: Triumph of the Heart movie/Sherwood Fellows

Despite facing numerous challenges while making the film, D’Ambrosio said the most beautiful aspect was seeing “how generous the Catholic world has been.”

“Triumph of the Heart” was an entirely crowdfunded movie — meaning all production costs were covered thanks to donations from individuals.

D’Ambrosio shared that not only did everyday Catholics generously donate financially, but they also donated airline miles for the crew to be able to travel and many volunteered to go to Poland on their own dime to help with the production while the team was there for three months filming.

“I mean the whole movie is just a compilation of the stories of people who have sacrificed immensely in order to tell the story,” D’Ambrosio said.

When reflecting on the life and story of Kolbe, D’Ambrosio said it serves as a great reminder to Catholics that “when everything is hopeless, really, truly, love has the power to overcome darkness and to change the world.”

“The choice to have to maintain love and hope and faith in the face of darkness is the most powerful expression of God’s love and presence that any person can offer the world,” he added.

Despite having his life’s work destroyed by the Nazis and witness his country of Poland be conquered and destroyed by the Germans, Kolbe maintained his faith, and for D’Ambrosio “that has been the part of his life that has resounded the most throughout history and throughout time.”

“I think for anybody that is struggling in any way in their lives right now, they can look at his suffering and look at the fruit of it and make sense in many ways — maybe not make sense but they can like find a balm and find a compass for their own action the way that I did,” he said.

D’Ambrosio emphasized that the movie is primarily about hope and said he finds it “very apropos that this year was declared to be a Jubilee of Hope and that somehow Kolbe’s movie and his story is coming out in the jubilee year.”

The filmmaker said he hopes viewers “will come away with this catharsis — with this feeling of all of that was worth it if that’s what heaven is like.”

“I think that the way that the movie leaves people is like a little promise of ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK. The place we’re going is better and all of the suffering and trials and tribulations that you go through here now and all the crosses that you bear, they will be fully redeemed and you will be completely filled up and made new.’”

Jimmy Lai’s son says his father is ‘still fighting’ amid ongoing trial

unitedyam August 22, 2025

Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned free speech advocate Jimmy Lai, speaks on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Aug. 21, 2025. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 22, 2025 / 13:38 pm (CNA).

Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, said this week his father is “still fighting” and “holding on” as closing arguments continue in his lengthy national security trial.

Jimmy Lai, the Catholic billionaire, human rights activist, and founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has been on trial since 2023 in Hong Kong for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government. He faces a life sentence if found guilty.

“It’s a textbook example of a show trial, of the weaponization of the legal system,” Sebastien told EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Thursday.

“He’s not going to see a fair trial … It’s an absolute kangoo trial.”

Sebastien said the evidence brought against his father “all turned out to be completely untrue,” adding: “My father is in prison because of his journalism and because of his courage. Because he stayed to defend his people, because he dared to campaign for democracy and for human rights in Hong Kong. And that didn’t sit well with the Hong Kong government.”

While closing arguments began on Aug. 18, they continue to be postponed. Sebastien said the issue is that “the national security law is so broad,” explaining that the “rule of law” in Hong Kong, which was once fairly enforced, “no longer holds.”

“Instead of the rule of law, it’s the rule of men,” he said. “My father got more than a year in maximum security prison in solitary confinement on one of the sentences, which was for lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a Tiananmen Square massacre vigil.”

People can see it is “not just ridiculous, but how horrible it is to give someone a jail sentence over commemorating people who died, [but] who died for freedom and democracy in China.”

While “it’s an open trial” and people in Hong Kong can follow what is happening, “there’s no free press,” Sebastien said. “People are going to jail for liking social media posts or even writing on bathroom toilets … But foreign journalists can still go and local journalists can still cover parts of it. There’s at least that element of it.”

“My father said it best … when he was giving testimony: ‘My job as a journalist, as a publisher, is to hold a torch to the truth.’”

Call for international support

As leaders around the world rally to support Jimmy, Sebastien said his family is “incredibly grateful” for the help but that he thinks “it’s time to put action” behind words.

President Donald Trump recently vowed to do everything he can to bring about Jimmy’s release.

“The fact that [Trump] is still keeping my father’s case close to heart is something that I’m incredibly grateful for,” he said.

“The U.S. government is much more effective and much stronger in terms of liberating people around the world. Now that both [the U.K. and U.S.] governments are so supportive, it gives us a lot of hope as a family, but … I think the U.K. government can do more to free my father,” he said.

“But I think we are in a situation now where my father dying in jail is not beneficial for any party. It’s not beneficial for Hong Kong. It’s not beneficial for China. It’s obviously not beneficial for anybody who enjoys freedom.” Jimmy would “essentially act as a martyr if he died in prison,” Sebastien said.

Jimmy’s health concerns

“His health is not good,” Sebastien continued. “From my understanding, my father is much skinnier and much weaker, but still strong in spirit and still strong in mind.”

The Chinese government is “always trying to essentially break his spirit with all these multiple show trials. The government tells him that nobody cares about him and that he’s going to die for nothing.”

In solitary confinement, where Jimmy is most of the time, he is “in a little concrete cell, and there’s no air conditioning, so he bakes under the sun … never mind his diabetes,” the younger Lai said. Recently, Jimmy’s lawyers also shared that he is suffering from heart palpitations in prison.

As the trial continues, Sebastien said a statement his father made is what gives him hope: “‘The truth will come out in the kingdom of God, and that is good enough for me.’”