Pope Francis beatified John Paul I in Rome on Sunday. He had been pope for just 33 days, from August 26 to September 28, 1978.

Candela Giarda (22) explained in a video recorded from Argentina that she was unable to travel to Italy.

"Unfortunately we can't go because my foot is broken, but surely at some point we will be able to go to the tomb of John Paul I," Giarda said.

The Blessed John Paul's intercession in Giarda's life began in 2011, when she was close to death.

Her mother and the local Catholic priest prayed for her healing through John Paul I's intercession.

Soon afterward, the 11 year-old began to improve. Around six weeks later she was discharged from hospital.

After the Vatican investigation into Giarda's healing concluded, Pope Francis recognised the event as a miracle obtained through the intercession of John Paul I.

Francis's recognition paved the way for John Paul's beatification.

In her video from Argentina, Giarda thanked "Pope John Paul I for this second chance at life that he gave me; and to Pope Francis for inviting us to his beatification".

Giarda's mother also spoke on the video.

"What happened ... may help other people to have a little more faith, of hope in the face of difficult times like the ones we are experiencing," she said.

"We appreciate the prayers offered and we entrust ourselves to the prayers of Pope Francis and we are going to continue praying for him."

The priest who prayed with Giarda's mother the night the doctors said there was nothing else they could do for her will attend John Paul's beatification on 4 September.

Asked why he suggested the woman entrust her daughter to John Paul I's intercession, he said when he saw the dying girl he was "inspired to turn to John Paul I to ask for the healing of [the mother's] little girl".

He, Giarda's mother and some of the nurses present prayed Giarda would be miraculously healed.

"Until that moment I had never prayed to John Paul I for healing," Dabusti says.

He explained John Paul I had inspired him when he was elected pope. At that time Dabusti was just 13 years old.

"I was really struck by the election and the person of Pope Luciani [John Paul I]: I saw that he was very simple and very happy," he said.

"These two traits had caught my attention and aroused my admiration, above all, my spontaneous affection for him."

Dabusti says he has always kept a portrait of Pope John Paul I in his room: "Growing up, I begged him to help me discern which vocation to follow."

"And I am certain that Albino Luciani was a mysterious spiritual father and a silent but effective intercessor for me in deciding to embrace the priestly vocation."

Source

• Catholic News Agency

Mollie Wilson O'Reilly, an editor at large and columnist for the US-based Commonweal magazine, was sepcifically referring to the recent beatification of Anna Kolesárová.

Kolesárová was a sixteen-year old Slovak girl who was murdered in front of her family by a Soviet soldier in 1944.

"When I read the news about the sixteen-year-old murder victim who was beatified as a ‘martyr to purity,' I had to check the date on the paper," O'Reilly says. Read more

The Capuchin friar, who died in 1957, co-founded the Capuchin Soup Kitchen.

Although he was a priest who wasn't allowed to preach, he listened "with his ears and his heart" to the needy.

His prayers and presence comforted visitors suffering from illness and trauma when he was the doorkeeper of St. Bonaventure Monastery between 1924 and 1945.

Casey was beatified because Vatican investigations showed there was no scientific explanation of how a Panamanian woman's genetic, disfiguring skin disease disappeared in the hours after she prayed at Casey's tomb.

She was among the tens of thousands at his beatification Mass which was held at the Detroit stadium.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at the mass and led the rite of beatification.

He read a letter from Pope Francis, who described Casey as a "humble, faithful disciple of Christ." He was given the title of "blessed."

The church decrees "that the venerable servant of God, Francis Solanus, known in the world as Bernard Casey … a humble and faithful disciple of Christ, tireless in serving the poor … henceforth be called by the name of Blessed."

A life-size banner of Blessed Solanus was unfurled on the altar platform.

One of the tens of thousands at the beatification Mass said she'd "been waiting for this day for 14 years."

Lily Flask said she believed Casey's intercession helped save her husband from heart problems in 2003.

"I prayed every day to him. ... I had to be here today."

Source

• Detroit Free Press
• Crux
• WBIR.com

Samandar Singh was 22 in 1995 when he murdered the Clarist Sister Rani Maria Vattalilon.

He killed her on behalf of money lenders who were upset with her work which involved setting up self-help groups.

He stabbed her in front of more than 50 passengers on a bus.

Singh was convicted of murder. He was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted to a life in prison.

Singh, who is a Hindu, has been forgiven by the nun's family and released from prison.

He says he is "eagerly waiting for the big day".

"Whatever happened has happened. I am sad and sorry about what I did. But now I am happy that the world is recognizing and honoring Sister Rani."

He said Sister Rani Maria's younger sister, Clarist Sister Selmy, formally accepted him as her "brother" while he was in prison and helped arrange for his early release.

Court officials agreed to the release in 2006 after declarations were signed by Selmy, her parents and church officials.

Selmy says her sister's beatification is "a miracle".

"Sister Rani urges us all to go forward fearlessly," she says.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Abouna.org

This category is distinct from martyrdom through "oblatio vitae, or "the free offering of their life" for love of God and neighbour.

The letter's title, Maiorem hac dilectionem, comes from Our Lord's words in St. John's gospel: "Greater love than this no one has, that they lay down their life for their friends".

Francis explains in the letter: "It is certain that the heroic offering of life, suggested and supported by charity, expresses a true, full and exemplary imitation of Christ.

"It therefore deserves the admiration that the community of the faithful usually reserves to those who have voluntarily accepted the martyrdom of blood or have exercised in a heroic degree the Christian virtue."

He also outlines the five differences between the new category's definition and the one defining martyrs.

• "The free and voluntary offering of one's life, and heroic acceptance ... of a certain and soon-to-come death;
• "A nexus - i.e. close relation - between the offering of life and the premature death of the one who offers it;
• "The exercise, at least in ordinary degree, of the Christian virtues before the subject's offering of his or her life and, afterward, perseverance in those virtues unto death;
• "The existence of fama sanctitatis - i.e. the reputation for holiness - on the part of the subject, and of signs [confirming these], at least after death;
• "The necessity, for beatification, of a miracle, one that occurred after the death of the Servant of God, and by said Servant's intercession."

Besides these criteria, the diocesan inquest into the Cause of the Servant of God must answer the following question:

"Does the case consist of [an] heroic offering of his/her life up to death for the sake of supernatural love of God (propter caritatem) and also of the Christian virtues, at least in the ordinary degree, on the occasion and to the effect for which [the subject's offering of his/her life] was made?"

The new category was approved by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints' support.

Source

• Crux
• Vatican Radio
• Image: EpicPew

The meeting was presided over by the Vicar General of the archdiocese.

Others in attendance were the Promoter of Justice, the Notary of the Cause, and three historical experts.

The theological experts took their oaths of office in Paris.

The Society of Mary was represented by Frs Bernard Thomasset, the vice-postulator, and Fathers Paul Walsh and Paul Loubaresse.

After a welcome by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, Fr Bernard Thomasset delivered a presentation on aspects of Fr Colin's work.

The formal reading of the nihil obstat granted by three Roman dicasteries then took place, followed by swearing of oaths, some procedural matters and a time of prayer.

a meeting took place in the archbishop's residence in Lyons to formally open the beatification process of Fr Jean-Claude Colin, Founder of the Society of Mary

Source

sm.org.nz

The Pope made these remarks "off-the-cuff" while speaking on Friday to a group of Salvadoran pilgrims.

Pope Francis said that Romero suffered martyrdom not just by his murder on March 24, 1980, but afterwards.

The Pope said: "I was a young priest then and I was a witness to this: he was defamed, calumnied and had dirt thrown on his name — his martyrdom continued even by his brothers in the priesthood and episcopate."

He said Blessed Romero was "stoned with the hardest stone that exists in the world: the tongue".

"After having given his life, he continues to give it by allowing himself to be assailed by all this misunderstanding and slander," the Pope said, adding that "this gives me strength".

Blessed Romero had spoken out against repression by the army at the beginning of El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war.

He was murdered by right-wing death squads as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador.

Romero's sainthood case was held up by the Vatican, apparently due to opposition from some Latin American churchmen who feared his association with liberation theology would embolden the movement.

After a 35-year delay, Blessed Romero was beatified in May this year.

Pope Francis, speaking to the pilgrims, said he hoped God would continue what Blessed Romero had hoped would come to El Salvador: "the happy moment when El Salvador's terrible tragedy of suffering of so many of our brothers thanks to hatred, violence and injustice, disappears".

In a message sent for the beatification, Pope Francis said Archbishop Romero "built the peace with the power of love, [and] gave testimony of the faith with his life".

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: OP.org

He was proclaimed blessed in an apostolic letter read on behalf of Pope Francis by Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato during a Mass in South Africa's northern Limpopo province on Sunday.

The ceremony in Tshitanini village was attended by some 30,000 people.

Blessed Daswa was beaten to death 25 years ago by fellow villagers after he refused to join in witchcraft-related activities ordered by local elders as a response to damaging storms.

A convert to Catholicism, he reportedly refused to pay a sorcerer who promised to end the storms.

After being stoned by his assailants, Blessed Daswa ran to a hut before being found by the mob and beaten to death with a stick.

His murderers then poured boiling water in his ears and nostrils - all of which happened on February 2, 1990, the day the apartheid regime announced it would release Nelson Mandela.

"While his executioners were killing him, Benedict was on his knees praying. He prayed until the last minute of his life," said Fr Andre Bohas, one of the initiators of the beatification process.

He "is a model for all the people in Africa".

Blessed Daswa's eight children - including one born a few months after his death - sat in the front at the ceremony, alongside their 91-year-old grandmother Ipa.

"Proud is an understatement to describe what I feel," said Mutshiro Michael, 33, one of Daswa's sons, adding he had forgiven his father's murderers.

Virtually unknown when he died, Blessed Daswa's fame grew throughout South Africa's Catholic community, with villagers starting to commemorate the anniversary of his death.

His feast day will be celebrated on February 1.

Around eight per cent of South Africa's population is Catholic.

During his Sunday Angelus address in Rome, Pope Francis paid tribute to Blessed Daswa.

"In his life he always showed great consistency, courageously defending Christian views and rejecting worldly and pagan customs," Pope Francis said.

Sources

• AFP
• Vatican Radio
• Reuters
• Image: La Voz Catholica

This was reported by Italy's Famiglia Cristiana (Christian Family) Catholic magazine last week.

No pope has ever testified for the beatification of another, the magazine stated.

John Paul I died 37 years ago after being pope for just 33 days, following the death of Blessed Pope Paul VI.

He was succeeded by St John Paul II

Continue reading

"Romero, friend, the people are with you," the congregation chanted at a square in San Salvador.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification Mass.

In his homily the cardinal said that "the figure of Romero is still alive and giving comfort to the marginalised of the earth."

"His option for the poor was not ideological, but evangelical. His charity extended to the persecutors."

Blessed Romero was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass a day after ordering soldiers and police to stop killing innocent civilians.

While his killers were never found, many blame the assassination on right-wing death squads.

The archbishop had been a fierce critic of the US-backed military regime that seized power in 1979.

The blood-stained short he wore when he was killed is now a relic and it was given some prominence at the beatification Mass.

Eight deacons carried the shirt, displayed in a glass case, to the altar.

One of the offertory gifts at the beatification Mass was a book "From Madness to Hope" that detailed some of the human rights atrocities committed in El Salvador during the conflict from 1979 to 1992 between leftist guerrillas and a right-wing dictatorship.

In a message, Pope Francis stated that, in a time of difficulty in El Salvador, Archbishop Romero knew "how to guide, defend and protect his flock, remaining faithful to the Gospel and in communion with the whole Church".

"His ministry was distinguished by a particular attention to the poor and marginalised," the Pope noted.

Archbishop Romero's feast day will be March 24, the "day he was born into heaven", the Pontiff wrote.

In February, Francis signed the decree recognising Archbishop Romero as a martyr, a person killed "in hatred of the faith".

A hero to the liberation theology movement, Blessed Romero's beatification was delayed for decades over political concerns.

But the way forward for his cause was unblocked by Pope Benedict XVI.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Catholic News Agency
• CNN
• Image: Business Insider

The ceremony will be in Plaza Divino Salvador del Mundo, said Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the chief promoter of the archbishop's sainthood cause.

Archbishop Paglia called the beatification a gift for the world, but particularly for the people of El Salvador.​

In February, Pope Francis paved the way for Archbishop Romero's beatification when he formally decreed that the prelate was assassinated as a martyr for the Catholic faith.

Shot dead while celebrating Mass in 1980, the archbishop has long been considered a saint by many in Latin America, but the official Vatican process had lingered for years.

Continue reading

Speaking to 70,000 people at St Peter's Square on October 19, Francis said Catholics must "not fear the new" and must be open to previously "unexpected paths".

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who was made a cardinal by Paul VI, made a rare public appearance at the Mass.

Francis embraced him and accompanied him to his seat in the front row.

The Mass brought the two-week synod on the family to a close.

Blessed Paul VI established the Synod of Bishops as an institution of the Church designed to help the Pope with his magisterial office.

Francis quoted Blessed Paul VI as saying that the Church must "scrutinise the signs of the times, to try to adapt its ways and methods to respond to the growing needs of our time and the changing conditions of society".

Francis said that the Church must look to the future, healing the "wounds of those that are hurt" and rekindling hope for people who have lost hope.

He said: "God is not afraid of the new".

"That is why he is continually surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways."

The Church was not a place to "escape from reality", he said, adding that "Christians must look at the reality of the future, that of God, with both feet planted firmly on the ground, and respond with courage to the numerous new challenges."

Pope Francis called Blessed Paul VI, "the great helmsman" of the Second Vatican Council.

Paul VI was the first pope to travel outside Italy in the modern era, he oversaw the updating of the liturgy from Latin to the vernacular, and dramatically reorganised the Roman Curia.

But the former Cardinal Giovanni Montini is also remembered for his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which banned Catholics from using artificial birth control.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Tablet (Text of Pope Francis' homily)
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Catholic News Agency

In a September 3 communiqué, the Diocese of Peoria, where Archbishop Sheen was born, announced that the cause was suspended "for the foreseeable future" and would be assigned to a Vatican archive.

This is because the Archdiocese of New York had refused to release the archbishop's remains and to allow the body to be transferred to Peoria for the process of official inspection and to take relics.

Peoria diocese said in a communiqué that the Holy See expected the remains to be moved to Peoria in Illinois.

Archbishop Sheen's last will and testament expressed a desire for burial in New York.

He accepted Cardinal Terence Cooke's invitation for interment in the crypt beneath the main altar of St Patrick's Cathedral.

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, the President of the Archbishop Fulton J Sheen Foundation, who had taken charge of the cause, was said to be "heartbroken" at the refusal.

The Peoria communiqué stated Bishop Jenky was assured on several occasions by the Archdiocese of New York that the transfer of the body would take place at the appropriate time.

"New York's change of mind took place as the work on behalf of the cause had reached a significant stage," the communiqué added.

New York's undertaking to help move the body at an appropriate time was given by Cardinal Edward Egan twice, a Peoria spokesperson said in an update.

The Congregation for Saint's Causes advised in 2005 that moving the body should wait for an appropriate time, as the diocesan inquiry had not started.

But Peoria believes that with this inquiry now complete, now is the right time.

A date for beatification could have been as early as next year, the Peoria statement added, as the process only awaited a vote of cardinals and the approval of the Holy Father.

New York archdiocese responded that Cardinal Timothy Dolan "did express a hesitance in exhuming the body" without a directive from the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes and the approval of Archbishop Sheen's family.

The statement added that Archbishop Sheen's "closest surviving family members" asked that the archbishop's interment wishes be respected.

The statement noted that Cardinal Dolan "does object to the dismemberment of the archbishop's body" [for relics], but, were it to be exhumed, relics that might have been buried with Archbishop Sheen might be able to be taken.

If Peoria's decision is final, New York suggested it could take over the cause.

Peoria had previously suspended the cause process, for similar reasons, in 2010.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic Review
• National Catholic Register
• Catholic Post (Peoria statement)
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Irish Catholic

The ceremony is expected to attract 100,000 people from at least 50 countries.

Some 3000 families will open their homes to those travelling to Madrid from abroad and 2000 young people have signed up to work as volunteers for the event.

The current prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarria, has sent a letter to all cloistered and contemplative nuns in Spain asking for their prayers for the beatification.

Continue reading

The bishops reportedly asked him to come to El Salvador to preside personally over the archbishop's hoped-for beatification.

Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas said he and three other Salvadoran bishops met the Pope at the Vatican this month to discuss Archbishop Romero's cause.

"We ask the Lord for the speedy beatification of Archbishop Romero and that the Pope come here" to celebrate the ceremony, Archbishop Escobar said.

The Pope told the Salvadoran bishops that he was pleased the process was moving ahead, but he gave no indication of when it would be completed, the archbishop told reporters.

Archbishop Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was shot dead on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a hospital.

This was one day after he delivered a homily calling on Salvadoran soldiers to stop enforcing government repression and human rights violations.

Pope John Paul II gave him the title "servant of God" in 1997, and the cause for his canonisation began.

But it stalled under the papacy of Benedict XVI as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith studied Archbishop Romero's writings.

This was amid wider debate over whether he had been killed for his faith or for political reasons.

Pope Francis revived the cause soon after he was elected last year.

In 2013, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family and official promoter of Archbishop Romero's cause, said the process had been "unblocked", but gave no further details.

Before Archbishop Romero can be beatified, Pope Francis must officially recognise him as a martyr or officially recognise a miracle received through his intercession.

Recent reports in several languages had suggested that an announcement about Archbishop Romero's beatification was near.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Good Shepherd BH

The Vatican announced that Francis has approved a decree attributing a miracle to the intercession of the Italian pope, and his beatification will take place at the conclusion of the bishops' synod on the family.

On May 6, the Italian news agency, ANSA, reported that the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints had attributed to Pope Paul's intercession the healing of an unborn baby from an otherwise incurable illness.

Continue reading

The miracle was the healing in the United States of an unborn baby from an otherwise incurable illness.

Doctors forecast the baby would die in the womb, or be born with severely damaged kidneys.

Abortion was offered to the mother, but she refused.

Instead, she took advice given from a nun who was a friend of the family and who had met Giovanni Battista Montini (Paul VI).

The mother prayed for Paul VI's intercession, placing a fragment of his vestments and an image of him on her stomach.

Ten weeks later, medical tests showed a substantial improvement in the baby's health.

The eventual birth was by Caesarean section.

Witnesses agree the case cannot be explained scientifically.

Andrea Tornielli, writing for La Stampa, forecast that Pope Paul's beatification will be in October, at the end of the extraordinary synod on the family.

He predicted Pope Francis would promulgate a decree on the miracle soon.

It was Paul VI who established the synod of bishops in 1965, in response to a request from Vatican II fathers.

He was pope from 1963 to 1978.

Paul VI presided over key reforms from the Second Vatican Council, as well as surviving an assassination attempt at Manila airport in 1970 by a Bolivian surrealist painter.

Pope Paul promulgated a new Roman Missal in 1969.

The year before, he published an apostolic constitution reforming the Roman Curia

The late pope was praised for his efforts to seek closer ties with other Christian denominations, but his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae banning artificial contraception was controversial.

Pope Benedict XVI promulgated Paul VI's heroic virtues in 2012, bestowing on him the title "Venerable".

Sources

• The Telegraph
• UCA News
• US Catholic
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Salt and Light TV

Blessed Giuseppe Girotti, OP, was beatified in Alba, Italy, the day before the canonisations of St John Paul II and St John XXIII.

In 1995, Israel's Yad Vashem holocaust memorial declared him "righteous among the gentiles".

Continue reading

These were the carefully-chosen words of Cardinal Basil Hume in a tribute to Archbishop Romero at a memorial service in Westminster Cathedral the week after his assassination in March 1980. Thirty three years later, after many inexplicable delays, Oscar Romero is undoubtedly moving towards sainthood.

The cause for his canonisation was reportedly ‘unblocked' by Pope Francis in May and is now progressing quickly; and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said that there are no doctrinal obstacles to the cause.

A formal certification of Romero's martyrdom and then his beatification seems to be on the cards for 2014 or 2015, well before the centenary of his birth in 2017. Nevertheless we should remember that the Christian communities, the People of God in Latin America, long ago ‘canonised' their beloved pastor in their hearts as Saint Romero of the Americas.

It is the greatest grace and privilege of my life to have known and worked with Archbishop Romero and to have enjoyed his friendship. There are times in life when one catches a fleeting glimpse of God at work in the world and Christ's presence amongst us. The man we all knew as ‘Monseñor' provided such a glimpse for me.

I was awakened at 5am on the morning of Tuesday 25 March 1980 by a telephone call from the Jesuit Provincial's office in San Salvador with the devastating news that Archbishop Romero had been assassinated the previous evening.

He was shot just above the heart with a single exploding bullet fired by a death squad marksman acting, according to El Salvador's current President Funes, ‘with the protection, collaboration or participation of state agents'.

He had just completed his homily and was moving to offer the bread and wine at the Mass he was celebrating in the chapel of the hospital where he lived. He fell at the foot of a huge crucifix with blood streaming from his mouth, nostrils and ears.

A nun on the front bench recorded the Mass and it is a jolting shock now to listen to the sound of that shot, the moment of martyrdom of the Archbishop of San Salvador.

Oscar Romero was an unlikely martyr. Continue reading.

Julian Filochowski is Chair of the Archbishop Romero Trust.

Source: Thinking Faith

Photo: Julian Filochowski sat next to Archbishop Romero in 1978, Archbishop Romero Trust.