When the Pope met today with several thousand pilgrims who attended Sunday’s canonization, he evoked the figure of this religious of the Society of the Divine Word, one of the first followers of the congregation’s founder, Father Arnold Janssen, also newly canonized.
“He became Chinese with the Chinese, assuming their mentality and customs,” the Pontiff said of Father Freinademetz (1852-1908). He addressed the pilgrims in Paul VI Hall.
“In heaven I also want to be Chinese,” he recalled Father Freinademetz saying. “From heaven, may he continue to watch over that nation and all the Asian continent.”
