VATICAN CITY, APRIL 20, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Catholic Church will soon have two new canonized saints and 10 new blessed, according to decrees promulgated by the Congregation for Sainthood Causes.
«The saints are the most credible and effective teachers of Christian perfection,» said Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the congregation, when he presented the decrees Monday in the presence of John Paul II.
«The variety of their charisms, intuitions and evangelical endeavors are indications and incentives for the Church of our time,» the cardinal said.
The congregation promulgated two decrees recognizing miracles attributed to the intercession of two blessed, the last step necessary for the recognition of their holiness.
They are Blessed Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, a Chilean Jesuit who lived 1901-1952. «A priest full of fervor and spirit of initiative, he dedicated himself to the apostolate among young people and to teaching,» said Cardinal Saraiva Martins. He added that the blessed he was an «assistant of Catholic Action and founded the Home of Christ to help the homeless poor.»
The other soon-to-be-canonized saint will be Blessed Felice Da Nicosia, a lay Italian of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins who lived 1715-1787. For more than 40 years he offered his service of mendicant, carrying out «a fruitful itinerant apostolate,» the cardinal said. «Illiterate, he had the science of charity and humility.»
Among the 10 to be beatified, eight are martyrs of the 1930s religious persecution in Spain, for which the canonical process does not require the recognition of miracles attributed to their intercession.
A decree recognizes the martyrdom in 1936 of seven priests of the Urgel Diocese: José Tapies Sirvant (born in 1899), Pascual Araguás Guardia (1899), Silvestre Arnau Pascuet (1911), José Boher Foix (1887), Francisco Castell Brenuy (1866), Pedro Martret Moles (1901) and Frenchman José Juan Perot Juanmartí (1877).
«All were engaged in pastoral ministry as parish priests or assistants. The cause of their death was hatred of the faith,» Cardinal Saraiva Martins said.
The other martyr of the religious persecution in Spain who will be beatified is María de los Ángeles Ginard Martí, a nun of the Congregation of the Sister Guardians of Eucharistic Worship, killed out of hatred of the faith during the religious persecution in Dehesa de la Villa, in 1936. She was born in Mallorca in 1894.
The others to be beatified are not martyrs, so their process required the recognition of two miracles, which were promulgated on Monday.
They are Pierre Vigne, French priest and founder of the Congregation of Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament (1670-1740). «His specialty was itinerant preaching, devotion to the Eucharist, and the ministry of confessions,» the cardinal explained.
The other is Frenchman Jean du Sacré-Coeur, founder of the Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Dehonians, who lived 1843-1925. «He was dedicated to the social and educational apostolate, giving life to a series of initiatives which cost him many sacrifices,» the cardinal said.
The Congregation for Sainthood Causes also published decrees of recognition of heroic virtues — one of the steps required for the process of beatification — of the following servants of God:
— Francesco Maria Greco, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of Women Religious Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts (1857-1931).
— José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Argentine priest (1840-1914).
— Silvio Gallotti, Italian priest (1881-1927).
— Felice Prinetti, Italian priest of the Congregation of Oblates of the Virgin Mary and founder of the Congregation of Religious Daughters of St. Joseph (1842-1916).
— Candelaria de San José, Venezuelan, religious and founder of the Congregation of Carmelite Religious of the Third Order Regular, at present Carmelite Religious of Mother Candelaria (1863-1940).
— Teresa of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Spanish religious and co-founder of the Congregation of Teresian Carmelite Religious of St. Joseph (1848-1917).
— Maria della Passione di Nostro Signore Gesú Cristo, an Italian religious of the Institute of Crucified Religious Adorers of the Eucharist (1866-1912).
— Maria Anna Barbara Cope, known as «Mother Marianne of Molokai,» a German religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Syracuse (1838-1918).
— María del Pilar Cimadevilla y López-Dóriga, Spanish girl (1951-1962).
