Pope Leo XIV He addressed the French bishopson the occasion of the centenary of the canonization of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús, San Juan María Vianney and San Juan Eudes, highlighting the validity of their testimony to face the challenges that are currently presented to the Church in France.
“By raising them to the glory of the altars, my predecessor Pius XI wanted to present them to the people of God as teachers to listen, models to imitate and powerful support to whom to pray and invoke,” wrote the Holy Father.
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“The magnitude of the challenges facing the Church in France a century later, and the continuous relevance of these three holy figures to face them, lead me to invite them to give special prominence to this anniversary,” he added.
Leo XIV highlighted “a spiritual feature” that these three great saints of the Universal Church have in common: “They loved Jesus without reservations, in a simple and authentic way; they experienced their goodness and tenderness in a particular daily closeness, and testified with an admirable missionary impulse.”
For the Pope, this testimony is attractive and in a very significant way to today’s men and women. Echoing the words of Pope Francis in his encyclical Loved us The Holy Father affirms that – an example of the three centenary saints – there could not be a more beautiful mission for the French church than to “help everyone to discover the tender and devoted love that Jesus has, to the point of transforming their lives.”
“Celebrating the centenary of the canonization of these three saints is, above all, an invitation to thank the Lord for the wonders he has done in this French land throughout long centuries of evangelization and Christian life,” said Leo XIV.
The Pope said that the saints “do not appear spontaneously” but, by divine grace, “arise from living Christian communities who have managed to convey the faith, awaken in their hearts the love of Jesus and the desire to follow him.”
“This Christian heritage still belongs to them, still deeply permeates their culture and remains alive in many hearts,” he wrote.
The desire that Leo XIV expressed to the French Episcopate is that the celebration of this centenary does not evoke the nostalgia of the past, but that he awakens hope and allows a new missionary impulse throughout France.
“With the help of the saints who have already given you who you celebrate, God can renew the wonders he has done in the past,” said the Pope.
Similarly, he took the opportunity to “thank all my heart” and express their affection and paternal closeness to priests from all over the country “for their brave and persevering commitment.”
“Dear Bishop Brothers, I invoke the intercession of San Juan Eudes, San Juan María Vianney and Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús and the Holy Faz for their country and the people of God who bravely pilgrims there, despite the opposite winds and sometimes hostile of indifference, materialism and individualism,” said the Holy Father.
“That they give value to this people, in the certainty that Christ, the Savior of the world, has truly resurrected,” he concluded.
Andrés Henríquez
I was born in Caracas in 1996. I am a writer for ACI Press and correspondent of EWTN since 2023. Since then, I cover events of the Catholic Church in Venezuela, Latin America and the world. I have more than 6 years of experience in bilingual media. In addition, in Venezuela I have worked from various fields for freedom and respect for fundamental rights in the country. I am a member of the Regnum Christi Federation since 2014.