VATICAN CITY, JULY 8, 2001 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II will soon be able to fulfill a long-held wish: to beatify a husband and wife at the same time.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints made the surprise announcement at Friday´s promulgation of decrees, which also opened the way for the eventual canonization of three people and the beatification of an additional 10, including martyrs of Mexico and Nazi Germany.
Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi (1880-1951) and Maria Corsini (1884-1965), a couple from Rome, are among the future blessed.
The husband was a deputy-general attorney of the Italian state, and a personal friend of many of the politicians, such as Alcide de Gasperi and Luigi Gedda, who worked for Italy´s rebirth after the Mussolini era and World War II.
Maria Corsini was a professor and writer of educational topics, and a member of several associations, including Women´s Catholic Action.
Three of their four children attended the ceremony Friday which promulgated the decrees of the heroic virtues and the miracle that pave the way.for the beatifications.
Referring to the couple, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said that they «made their family an authentic domestic Church, open to life, prayer, witness of the Gospel, the social apostolate, solidarity with the poor, and friendship.»
«Intimately united in love and Christian ideals, they walked together on the path of holiness,» he added at the ceremony, held in the presence of John Paul II. The date of their beatification has not yet been published.
Among the others to be beatified are:
–Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles, two lay Mexicans, killed in the state of Oaxaca in 1700.
«Both wrote a splendid page of active participation in the mission of the Church and fidelity to Christ, to the [point of] spilling of blood,» Cardinal Saraiva Martins said.
The Dominicans had appointed the two to be guardians and keepers of the «purity of public morality» of Christian communities, and this is why they were killed in San Francisco Cajonos, Diocese of Antequera.
–Nikolaus Gross, a father of seven and a martyr under Nazism.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins said Gross «proclaimed Christ without shame or fear, while National Socialism persecuted the Christian community in Germany. … He honored the sacrament of marriage and the family as husband and father; as a worker, unionist and journalist, he was committed to justice, truth, solidarity and peace, risking his life every day.»
The cardinal added: «Two days before his execution, which occurred on Jan. 23, 1945, from the Berlin-Plotzensee prison he sent a noble letter of farewell to his wife, children and loved ones, in which he revealed a lucid conscience and extraordinary serenity in face of death.»
