Sainthood causes – Page 4

Prosper Guerganger’s beatification prayer

The re-founder of Benedictine life in France in the 19th century, Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875) has a cause introduced (2005) for study for possible sainthood. While no one is perfect in this world, there is reason to believe that God has made a saint of his monastic servant. The ideas and works point in a certain direction of the quality of the person being proposed for study but these things do not completely identify the person.

I chose this date to introduce the invitation to pray for the beatification of Guéranger because it is the date on which the newly formed Benedictines professed their solemn vows at Abbey of Saint Paul outside the Walls in Rome in 1837.

Prayer for the Beatification of Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God our Father, your servant Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes, guided by the Holy Spirit, helped a multitude of your faithful people rediscover the meaning of the liturgy as the source of true Christian life. May his devotion to your Holy Church and his filial love for the Immaculate Virgin, inspired by the mystery of the Incarnate Word, be a light for Christians of our own day. Deign, O Lord, to grant the favour we ask you by his intercession, so that his sanctity may be recognized by all and that the Church may soon allow us to invoke him as the one of your blessed and one of your saints. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Dorothy Day and the Benedictines

I found the following file on my computer this morning by accident –I wasn’t looking for it, but I was happy to find it. I’ve been harping on the Benedictine influence upon Dorothy Day and the importance the Rule of Benedict and the influence various monks had Day. For example, we have a good example of Dom Virgil Michel working with Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker. Another is Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila Latourrette. Day’s sainthood cause is being studied at the moment and these things matter, in my opinion.

Virgil Michel, O.S.B., and the Benedictine Influence on the CW Movement:

Virgil Michel, Fellow Worker in Christ
by Dorothy Day

To us at the Catholic Worker, Father Virgil was a dear friend and adviser, bringing to us his tremendous strength and knowledge. He first came to visit us at our beginnings on East Fifteenth Street. He was like Peter Maurin in the friendly simple way he would come in and sit down, starting right in on the thought that was uppermost in his mind, telling us of the work he was engaged in at that particular moment and what he was planning for the future. He was at home with everyone, anywhere. He could sit down at a table in a tenement house kitchen, or under an apple tree at the farm, and talk of St. Thomas and today with whoever was at hand. He had such faith in people, faith in their intelligence and spiritual capacities, that he always gave the very best he had generously and openheartedly.

He was interested in everything we were trying to do, and made us feel, at all the Catholic Worker groups, that we were working with him. When he came in it was as though we had seen him just a few weeks before. He was at home at once, he remembered everybody, he listened to everybody.

Orate Frates, January, 1939

Mother Marie-Adele Garnier canonization prayer

On the Communio blog I love to portray the witnesses of holiness, those canonized and beatified already, and those in process. One such person in process for study is the Benedictine nun Mother Marie-Adèle Garnier (1838-1924), the foundress of the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the monastery Garnier was known as Mother Mary of St. Peter. The aim of this Benedictine Congregation is to glorify the Most Blessed Trinity. Today is the anniversary of her transitus.

Mother Marie-Adèle’s cause has been introduced for study about a possible canonization. Blessed Columba Marmion wrote to one of her spiritual daughters, saying, “The special characteristic of your Mother is heroic confidence in the midst of impossibilities.” With this in mind, let us together pray for this favor.

Father, all powerful and ever living God, we give you glory, praise and thanks for the life and virtue of your beloved daughter, Marie-Adèle Garnier.

Filled with the riches of your grace and preferring mother to the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, she devoted her whole life to the adoration, praise and glory of your Name; she sacrificed herself by prayer and penance for the unity and holiness of your Church; she loved her neighbor with a charity full of humility and compassion.

Above all, she found the Sun of her life in the Holy Mass, and so was consumed with zeal for liturgical worship and Eucharistic adoration, and abandoned herself with all her heart to your most Holy Will in all things.

In your mercy Lord, hearken to our prayer: “Glorify Your Servant, Mother Marie-Adèle Garnier, that Your Servant may glorify you.”

We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end. Amen.

Sheen’s Body to move to Illinois?

The saga of who gets the body is rather sad. Who would think that the process of getting a person declared a saint in the Catholic Church could get acrimonious? But, in the case of the Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen it is. Today it was announced that the niece of Sheen, Joan Sheen Cunningham, has petitioned the New York Supreme Court to move the mortal remains of her uncle from the crypt in St Patrick’s Cathedral (NYC) to the Peoria, Illinois. Sheen died on December 9, 1979.

“All this focus on the body, the body,” Mrs. Cunningham said in an interview last week. “It’s forgetting what the purpose of the whole thing is. To keep someone from coming beatified over this, I think, is wrong.” Perhaps Cardinal Dolan could speed up the Sheen cause for canonization by ending the court petition now and send the body back to Peoria as requested. He’ll get a relic out of the deal anyways. Delaying is a tantamount to ecclesiastical game-playing.

The Diocese of Peoria has published this press release.

More to the story here.

Benedictine sainthood cause advances

Today, 14 June, Pope Francis received in a private audience Angelo Cardinal Amato, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints. In the course of the audience with the Holy Father, he authorized the Congregation to promulgate the decrees regarding…

…the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Bernard of the Annunciation (in history: Bernardo de Vasconcelos) a professed monk of the Order of Saint Benedict; born 7 July 1902 and died 4 July 1932.

He was a monk of Singeverga monastery. He died from spinal tuberculosis.

Brother Bernard will now carry the title of Venerable Servant of God

Bernardo de Vasconcelos.

Let us pray that our new Venerable will be raised the to the altar.

Dorothy Day’s cause for sainthood advances

Today, Timothy Cardinal Dolan , Archbishop of New York, announced that he was setting up the various commissions to study and advance the canonization process for the Servant of God Dorothy Day. This part of the canonical process, the Inquiry on the life of Day needs to argue for the Chuch that she lived a life of “heroic virtue.” Dorothy Day was the founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Dorothy Day is a convert to Catholicism (1927), a mother, and a Benedictine Oblate.

With Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 in New York City. The Movement places a high emphasis on the virtue of “hospitality”, a supreme Catholic virtue and one that is spoken of directly in the Rule of St. Benedict. Dorothy Day died in New York at the age of 83 in 1980.

In 2000, Cardinal John O’Connor requested from the Holy See the nihil obstat, naming Dorothy Day “Servant of God” and thus opening the canonization process. Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo was named “postulator” or chief advocate for the Cause of Canonization. In 2012, Cardinal Dolan asked the body of US Bishops to formally endorse Day’s cause in November 2012; they approved.

The Cardinal will appoint a historical commission that will report on the relevance of Day’s life in historical context and review her unpublished writings. Likewise, there will be a group of theological experts appointed by Dolan to review her published writings to make sure her teachings are without error. The process includes two readers for each publication.

George B. Horton said, “Dorothy Day created or inspired dozens of houses of hospitality throughout the English-speaking world, but she was also a journalist who published The Catholic Worker newspaper. Her articles in that paper alone total over 3,000 pages. Add her books and other publications and we will probably surpass 8,000 pages of manuscripts.”

The New York Archdiocese is sponsoring Day’s cause. Dolan will see to it that the documentation will be properly given to Congregation for the Saints. It will be this Congregation that will examine the evidence making a recommendation to Pope Francis whether what is written of Day is authentic give the next determination, the title of “Venerable Servant of God,” which gives an eye toward beatification and canonization.

Visit the Dorothy Day Guild for more information.

Andrea Aziani sainthood cause opened

On February 2, during Mass celebrating the 19th anniversary of the Diocese of Carabayllo, in the city of Lima, Peru, Bishop Lino Panizza, announced the opening of the cause of beatification of Andrea Aziani.

Andrea Aziani was a born on January 16, 1953 and a member of the Memores Domini. He met Father Luigi Giussani in 1972, and 15 years later, departed for a mission to Peru where he remained until his death on July 30, 2008.

PAZ translated from Tracce; image of Andrea Aziani with Saint John Paul II.

Father Paul Wattson’s sainthood cause moves ahead

The Fr Wattson causes of US saints is a key part of this blog. Not long ago, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the Archdiocese of New York the nihil obstat regarding the Cause of the Servant of God, Father Paul of Graymoor.

Receiving the nihil obstat means that there’s nothing in the Vatican archives to prevent the Cause from moving ahead. Next is for Timothy Cardinal Dolan to officially open the diocesan investigation into the life, virtue and work of Father Paul. This phase is expected to happen later in the year. In June 2014, Wattson was given the title of Servant of God and in November 2014 the US Bishops voted to advance the cause.

The Friars have known Father Paul as the Apostle of Christian unity and charity.

The Friars are in the process of developing Guild to support the Canonization of Father Paul Wattson. The address: PO Box 300, Garrison NY 10524.

At the conclusion of the lengthy diocesan study of the life and holiness of Father Paul will produce the positio, a formal argument for a Servant of God’s canonization. The positio includes a systematic biography of the Servant of God, a summary of testimony and an essay on Father Paul’s spirituality.

Becoming a saint is not a quick and easy process.

Venerable Andrey Roman Alexander Maria Sheptytsky

The Stamford Eparchy writes, “In the afternoon of 16 July 2015, Pope Francis received in a private audience the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato. During the audience, the Holy Father approved decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of several Servants of God. The first among these was Andrey Roman Alexander Maria Sheptytsky (1865–1944), Metropolitan-Archbishop of Lviv-Halych.

This formal declaration represents one of the penultimate stages in the beatification process. Once a miracle attributed to the intercession of Sheptytsky is formally recognized, Kyr Andrey will be declared a Blessed of the Universal Church.

The cause for his beatification had been introduced in 1958. With this declaration, the “Servant of God” becomes “Venerable” Andrey.

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The new Venerable Servant of God was born Roman Aleksander Maria Sheptytsky on July 29, 1865, in Prylbychi near Lviv. When he entered the Basilian Order took the name Andrey. Father Andrey was elected the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church at the age of 36 and he known to have quickly recognized as a social and cultural leader in a period of great political uncertainty. He died November 1, 1944, just four months after the Soviets took control of Lviv. Paris-based Bishop Borys Gudziak said, “His social teaching, his fine, subtle and prophetic voice allowed the church to survive.” He also said, “Born into an aristocratic family, the archbishop used his resources to create a free clinic, provide countless scholarships and help victims of famine, flooding and war. He personally lived a life of poverty.”

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Prayer for Beatification of Servant of God Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky

O My God, I adore Your infinite Majesty with all the powers of my soul. I thank You for the graces and gifts which You did bestow upon Your faithful Servant Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky. I ask You to glorify him also on earth with evident proofs and miracles. For this end I beseech You to give me the favor [mention the intention], which I humbly ask from Your Fatherly mercy. O Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Your Mother grant that Your faithful Servant Metropolitan Sheptytsky be proclaimed a saint for the greater glory of God, for the salvation of souls and the good of our Catholic Church. Amen.

Romero’s beatification date set

After years of reading and talking and listening to the case for Archbishop Oscar Romero’s beatification, Pope Francis heard the final testimony that it was the hatred for the Catholic faith that Romero was killed. He declared his intention to name Romero a martyr.

A CNS story talks about the recent decision to beatify Oscar Romero and set the date of Saturday, May 23, 2015 as the day for the ceremony in El Salvador. This is the eve of Pentecost this year. The Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes for Saints will offer the Mass and the rite of beatification, Cardinal Angelo Amato.

Carlos X gives this analysis of the connection with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and Romero’s beatification:

[the day can be understood] as a retrospective on his ministry as a bishop, and as a meditation on the great charge that Romero sought to fulfill.

First, Romero died during Lent and was buried on Palm Sunday. It seems sadly and sweetly fitting that he should return after Easter, resurrected not only in his people but in his Church, in which he will be raised to the honor of its altars.
Second, this Pentecost will be the 40th anniversary of Romero’s first pastoral letter, “The Holy Spirit in the Church,” issued in May 1975 while he was Bishop of Santiago de Maria. Many will want to read that pastoral letter; they will find that it serves as an apt road map for the bishop that was Oscar Romero, and that he was faithful to its most fervent objectives.
Finally, Pentecost is the inspiration for the Second Vatican Council, and the Latin American bishops’ synods at Medellín (1968) and Puebla (1979), which guided Romero’s ministry. It is impossible to read Romero’s episcopate but through the prism of these modern “Cenacles.”