Recently in Sainthood causes Category

Today's the anniversary of death (1937) of the Venerable Servant of God Antonietta Meo. She is known by many in Rome as Nennolina. Meo is a six year old candidate for sainthood, indeed a very young girl apparently was in love with Jesus and united her suffering (from cancer) to that of the Lord's.

Actually I had forgotten about Nennolina's anniversary until I saw it noted on a "friend's page" on Facebook.

When I lived for a month with the Cistercians at Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme I came to know about this young sainthood candidate. I seem to recall that a family in Michigan and in Indiana was attributing a miracle through Meo's intercession. Since I've not been following the cause, I don't the state of her sainthood process except that Benedict XVI recognized her heroic virtues in 2007.

Antonietta Meo was a student of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome.

Nennolina is buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the same place where the relics of the Holy Passion are located. She was baptized in this church and spent time in prayer there.

Read her letters.

In the days leading up to the great feast of Pentecost which we celebrate next week, it seems right that we look to what we know and believe about the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate sent to us by the Trinity. 

We need to work in a concerted way to educate our religious sense on the gifts of the Holy Spirit that were given in the sacraments of Initiation. The Holy Spirit is not talked about too often in the teaching of the faith and you rarely hear of the Spirit in homilies. I would love to see a parish provide as part of their formation of adults an in-depth course on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

It is noted by many that we lack a firm grasp of how the Holy Spirit leads and guides each one of us, and how the Spirit is the agent in the sacred Liturgy (Mass and the Divine Office). The Paulist Fathers' evangelization work has mentioned recently that "Until we appropriate the Holy Spirit more fully in our Catholic consciousness, we will not have the spirituality to do the reaching out, welcoming, inviting, and sharing that are essential parts of our Catholic life and mission. Father Isaac Hecker, Servant of God, founded the Paulist Fathers will a strong spirituality of the Holy Spirit. Part of his cause for canonization might well include a greater awareness of the Spirit in our American/Canadian Catholic lives."

Father Isaac Hecker is one of America's priests who took evangelization and adult faith formation seriously. Let's take inspiration from him.

Having died in 2005, beatified on 1 May 2011, John Paul II may well be a saint later in 2013. Some are speculating that he may be canonized in October. A group medical professionals have recognized miracle of healing at Blessed John Paul's intercession as inexplicable.

Now the presumed miracle needs the approval  of the theologians and then  approval of the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation of Saints before the dossier is presented to Pope Francis' fiat. If all goes well, John Paul would be one of very few fast-tracked saints in the modern era: only eight years after death.

Blessed John Paul's feast day is October 22.

Blessed John Paul served as the Roman Pontiff from 1978-2005.

            The process of becoming a saint, if you are not a John Paul II or a Mother Terese can take some time. When I heard the news of the completion of US side of Rose Hawthorne's cause for canonization was made, the other day from a Dominican priest friend, a "praise God" rang out! The last significant ecclesial judgement made on the sanctity of Rose Hawthorne was in 2003 when she was declared to be a Servant of God.

With the permission of Bishop Jeremiah Harty, on December 12, 1917, Father Flanagan opened his first Boys' Home in a run-down Victorian mansion in downtown Omaha. In his lifetime Father Flanagan helped more than 6,000 boys. During a tour of Europe, he fell ill and died of a heart attack in Berlin, Germany, on May 15, 1948. At the request of the Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion (FFLSD), Archbishop George Lucas, of the Archdiocese of Omaha has accepted responsibility for the beatification process. On March 17, 2012, Lucas formally opened the cause of canonization at a service of prayer at Immaculate Conception Church (Boys Town), bestowing the title of "Servant of God" upon Father Flanagan. Dr. Andrei Ambrosi is the Postulator for the cause. 

More information may be read here.

Father Joseph Walijewski (1924-2006), a missionary to Latin America, is now part of a long list of Americans who are being studied by the Church for possible sainthood.

Father Walijewski's cause for beatification opened by Bishop William P. Callahan, bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, WI, March 19, 2013. Dr. Andrea Ambrosi will be the postulator. Walijewski was born to poor Polish immigrant parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 15, 1924; ordained priest for the Diocese of La Crosse in April 1950; and began missionary work in Bolivia in 1956; he died on April 11, 2006, suffering pneumonia and acute leukemia. Father Joseph also served in Ecuador and Peru. While in Peru, he helped organize breakfast stations that fed 8,000 children per day where he founded in 1987 the Lima orphanage Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II, the House of John Paul II.

The Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, assassinated 33 years ago today, offering Mass in San Salvador.

Archbishop Romero is remembered as a Church leader of hope in a country that was ravaged by poverty, injustice and oppression.

In the face of incredible injustice, the Archbishop knew the Church to be a beacon of faith, hope and charity, recognized his responsibility to be a witness to these virtues and to challenge the oppressors, especially those who claimed to be Catholic. Romero's cause for canonization is being studied.