Among others, B16 declared:
- Miracles to green-light the canonizations of Blesseds Mary MacKillop (who'll become Australia's first saint) and Andre Bessette, the Holy Cross brother and founder of Montreal's St Joseph Oratory;
- the martyrdom "in odium fidei" of Fr (now Blessed-to-be) Jerzy Popieluzsko, the chaplain to the Polish Solidarity movement who was killed by the country's Communist authorities in 1984;
- and, most prominently of all, the heroic virtues of not one, but two pontiffs: Karol Wojtyla, better known as John Paul II... and Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, whose cause has sparked a significant amount of controversy among Jewish leaders amid charges that the wartime Pope failed to do enough to avert the Holocaust. Both now become "Venerable," their causes now permitted to present a first miracle in order to progress to beatification -- which, in the case of John Paul, could come as soon as next year.
- And, with Benedict slated to visit the UK next fall, likewise advanced was the cause of now-Venerable Mary Ward (1585-1645), the English foundress of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Inspired to start an Ignatian community for women in the spirit of the Jesuits -- one that, shockingly for its time, would be free from the obligations of the enclosure and a "specific" habit -- Ward's declaration, like MacKillop's, recognizes a life that endured ecclesiastical hardball; her community was suppressed in 1630, and only re-established sixty years after her death. Whispers in the Loggia
4 comments:
Fr. Jerzy! I'm thrilled - I distinctly recall his murder.
This is wonderful news for all. I love that JP II and Pius XII are included together - it reminds me of how John XXIII and Pio IX were beatified together - that whole hermeneutic of continuity thing.
Praise God! I'm so grateful to be Roman Catholic.
Yes, it is wonderful news.
But Abe Foxman and his ilk are already getting ready to increase their fundraising efforts by bashing Ven. Pius XII for not mobilizing the Swiss Guards and eradicating the Nazi Wehrmacht.
It is so absurd that they criticize him for not doing something that nobody else was able to do and that took millions of soldiers, sailors and airmen to accomplish.
I have no doubt that they just use this for fundraising.
It was incredibly awful that 6,000,000 Jews died. 3,000,000 Poles died. Nobody talks about that. 10 or 20 million Soviets died. Few talk about that.
The Jews got Israel back about 1,900 years after fleeing from it. That never would have happened had it not been for the Holocaust. They never mention that.
Maybe they should start thinking of the lost of 6,000,000 as a sacrifice.
Yes it is great that Fr. Jerzy is on the list. He and thousands of Poles in Solidarnosc (Solidarity) were key figures in the fall of the Iron Curtain.
And it was obvious that he was a martyr and a saint.
Excellent entry! I'm been looking for topics as interesting as
this. Looking forward to your next post.
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