An Italian Roman Catholic priest has been honored posthumously as a Righteous Among Nations.

Monsignor Maurizio Michele Raffa, who died in 1957 at the age of 51, was honored for having hidden the Jewish Di Castro family in 1943-44, thus saving them from deportation by the Nazi occupiers.

Israeli ambassador to Italy, Gideon Meir, made the presentation last Monday to Raffa's nephew, in a ceremony conducted at the church in Rome where Raffa served as priest.

Taking part in the ceremony were Jewish community leaders and a member of the family that Raffa saved.