In Giotto’s depiction of the Flight into Egypt, the Italian Medieval Master shows the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child riding sidesaddle like a Queen and heir apparent in a royal procession. This image and countless like it down the centuries mask the grim reality of the story in the Gospel of Matthew, when an angel warns Joseph to take Mary and the Baby Jesus and flee for their lives from the murderous plans of King Herod to a safe haven in Egypt. In my “Families in Flight” story box the Holy Family is the archetype of countless millions of families throughout history, forced to seek shelter in alien lands. The background collage of photographs shows Armenians fleeing the Turks, Greeks uprooted from Asia Minor, Jews in Nazi “transports,” Chinese trapped in Japanese-held Nanking, Hindus and Muslims after the 1946 Partition of India, and other refugees of wars, genocidal confiicts, and civil unrest in Vietnam, Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan, the Balkans, Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan, and, most recently, Ukraine and Gaza. If all the people forced to leave their homes in just the first half of 2024 were gathered in a single state, they would make up the most populous nation in the European Union. (John Kohan)