Cardinal Pironio, great promoter of World Youth Day
The precedent of the World Youth Days was the 1983-1984 jubilee, called the Holy Year of the Redemption, which commemorated the 1950 years of the Passion of Jesus. In this context, John Paul II organized a meeting of young people on Palm Sunday. An attendance of around 60,000 participants was expected, but the number exceeded 250,000.
The following year, in 1985, the United Nations He decided that year would be the “International Year of Youth”.
The then Pope John Paul II wanted the Catholic Church to have a presence at that call, and commissioned Cardinal Pironio, at that time president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, to look for the most appropriate ways for this event to take place.
For this reason, on the eve of Palm Sunday 1985, an international meeting of young people was called, which took place in the Plaza de San Juan Lateran in Rome, with an enormous attendance. There the idea of holding a World Youth Day (WYD) arose.
The first Conference was held in 1987 in Buenos Aires, and had the participation of more than one and a half million young people.
In one of his messages to the young people at that first WYD, Cardinal Pironio manifested: “The celebration of World Day in Buenos Aires—in a continent of cross and hope, such as Latin America—presents young people with a triple challenge: to their prayer, to their hope, to their love. To achieve this, we will try to reflect together, in the light of the Gospel, and to make our lives a fundamental option for Jesus Christ and his Gospel.”
After that first world meeting, the conferences took place in different countries around the world, with a frequency of approximately two years, and with an attendance of millions of young people in each edition.
Cardinal Pironio accompanied John Paul II in the first five WYDs. In 1996, he left the presidency of the Council for the Laity, and in 1997 he could no longer be present at the Paris edition. The days are still celebrated to this day—the most recent was in Lisbon, in August of this year— and in each edition they renew the memory of the Cardinal’s friendship with young people.
Saint John Paul II and his memory of the “unbreakable faith” of Cardinal Pironio
Cardinal Pironio died on February 5, 1998, due to bone cancer, which caused him suffering that kept him bedridden. He spent his last days with his fellow Episcopate and great friend, Cardinal Stanislaus Karlic.
At the time of his death, some media considered him the most distinguished Argentine bishop in history. His remains rest today in the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján.
In the homily of the funeral Mass for Cardinal Pironio, Saint John Paul II highlighted that the Argentine cardinal “believed with unwavering faith in the promises of the Redeemer.”
The Pope also recalled on that occasion the key role of Cardinal Pironio in the WYDs: “How can we forget the great contribution he gave to the celebrations of World Youth Days? I would like to publicly thank this brother of ours here, who gave me great help in the exercise of my Petrine ministry.”
Pope Benedict XVI declared him a Servant of God on June 23, 2006, at the beginning of his path to the altars. On February 22, 2022, Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Cardinal Pironio, for which he was henceforth considered “Venerable.”
On November 8, 2023, Pope Francis approved the miracle that will allow his beatification.
The miracle
The miracle to which his intercession is attributed was the unscientifically explained healing of Juan Manuel Franco, who in 2006 was 15 months old when he fell into a deep coma after accidentally inhaling glitter.
The miracle was approved after its evaluation by a board of Vatican doctors, which confirmed that the little boy’s healing “exceeds medical science,” and by a Commission of Theologians that confirmed that the family had requested the intercession of Cardinal Pironio.
“I have met a saint”
Upon hearing the news of his beatification, the Cardenal Karlic He told ACI Prensa that Pironio has been “a true brother” for him. When remembering his frank friendship, he expressed: “How nice it is to think, how nice it is to be able to say: I have met a saint, I am remembering a saint.”
Claudia Carbajal, current president of the National Council of Catholic Action, described Pironio “as a father, as a pastor, as a friend, as a brother.” His beatification, he considered, is providential for this difficult moment in the country.
The beatification ceremony
The beatification of Cardinal Eduardo Pironio will be celebrated this Saturday, December 16, in Plaza Belgrano, in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, where he received baptism, priestly ordination, episcopal consecration, and where his remains rest.
The celebration will begin at 11:00 a.m. (local time) and will be presided over by Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vergez, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, who was Cardinal Pironio’s secretary for more than two decades.
Those who cannot attend can follow the broadcast through the Luján Sanctuary YouTube Channelor that of the Argentine Episcopal Conference.