Argentina: The cause of canonization of Mons. Gottau is already in Rome

The cause of canonization of Mons. Jorge Gottau, first bishop of Añatuya (Argentina) and creator of the collection more for less, is already in Rome waiting for new advances in the process.

Last May, the Diocesan phase of the cause of canonization culminated in Buenos Aires, and the documentation was sent to the Vatican by the Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, Mons. Miroslaw Adamczyk.

This Tuesday, July 29, the current Bishop of Añatuya, Mons. José Luis Corral, and Dr. Stefania Falasca, appointed postulates in the Roman phase of the cause, presented the documentation in the Dicastery for the causes of the saints of the Vatican. There they were received by Fr. Boguslaw Turek, Undersecretary of Dicastery.

In a dialogue with ACI Prensa, Mons. Corral said: “We have presented a whole series of documentation that was required” to start “to this whole process, this new phase already Roman, after having closed in Buenos Aires in May the Diocesan phase.”

“All documentation, referred by the Nunciature from Argentina to Rome, has already been received, and now we have, step by step, start this new process and cycle,” said the prelate.

In addition, the prelate indicated that the postulator has already been appointed: an Italian secular, Dr. Falasca, who, “said,” gladly accompanied us. ” She will be the interlocutor between the Dicasterio for the causes of the saints and the acting parties of the process, which in this case are the diocese of Añatuya and the Congregation of the Redeemer Missionaries.

This step “is very important because it puts us on the right track, we are prosecuted, and now we have to support and sustain all the works that are asked from this office,” said Mons. Corral. To do this, he says, “we have to look for resources”, already “that there are people who have to dedicate themselves with great attention and care for this process. There is a lot of material that must be published, editing and also.”

The Bishop of Añatuya considered important “above all, to be able to accompany with prayer, so that – if it is the will of God – a miracle can soon be confirmed that the Church recognizes that it has occurred by its intercession and, in this way, it can be recognized as one of the blessed and saints of the Church.”

For the Añatuya community, the Prelate acknowledged, “it is a very important step, Mons. Jorge Gottou is very present, because we say that in our way of being, in the church style, we have its imprint and its marks since the beginning of this church that he grazed and knew how to drive for more than 30 years.”

Gottou “has left us the foundations, the structure, which today touches us also to deepen,” he said. “We want your person to continue to spread, especially to the new generations that have not known it directly but through the testimony of other people who still live among us.”

The figure of Mons. Jorge Gottou “continues to inspire us in this path of joining faith with life, the evangelizing action, the announcement of the Gospel with the service to charity and human promotion, especially in service to the dignity of all people,” he said.

For that reason, “we can have taken this step, that everything will be realized, that the Lord shows us on the road, people and means that he puts so that everything can be carried out in a more efficient and optimal way.”

Finally, Mons. Corral thanked “so many who are still betting so that this cause is thrown later. We know that above all it is the work of God, but also requires our collaboration as their instruments,” he valued.

Those who have received thanks for the intercession of Mons. Gottau and those who wish to collaborate to sustain the canonization process can write to the email cause.gottau@gmail.com can.

Who was Mons. Jorge Gottou?

Born on May 23, 1917 in the province of Buenos Aires, Mons. Jorge Gottou reached Añatuya in 1961, one of the poorest areas in the country, where Pope John XXIII created a new diocese, which consisted of seven parishes in its territory.

With deep missionary spirit, his pastoral and social activity began there, marked by his preference for the most postponed, the fight against hunger, malnutrition and illiteracy, and the titanic task of eradicating Chagas’s evil in the region.

In Añatuya, Gottau raised comprehensive evangelization, which linked faith with the development of human dignity. Within that framework, he promoted both the construction of schools, as well as the installation of dams, aqueducts, founded health centers and agricultural cooperatives and promoted the construction of homes with the participation of the families themselves, to replace the precarious ranches and in unhealthy conditions in which they lived.

The bishop headed fumigation campaigns against the spread of Chagas evil, and encouraged prevention by forming lay people and missionaries on the subject.

In 1970 he promoted the creation of the “more for less” national collection, which is still valid today, and whose collection is destined for the most needy dioceses in the country.

He died on April 24, 1994 in Buenos Aires.