Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided this Saturday, September 14, at the beatification Mass of Father Moisés Lira Serafín, in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
At the beginning of the Eucharist at 12 noon (local time), Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Primate Archbishop of Mexico, representing all the bishops of Mexico, asked Pope Francis, represented by Cardinal Semeraro “to deign to inscribe in the book of the blessed to the venerable Servant of God Moisés Lira Seraphim.”
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After the request, the priest’s biography was read and then Cardinal Semeraro proceeded with the reading of the bull in Latin, with which the Holy Father Francis inscribes Fr. Moisés Lira Serapín as the new blessed of the Catholic Church.
Mons. Rogelio Cabrera, Archbishop of Monterrey and president of the Mexican episcopate, indicated for his part that the feast of the new Blessed will be celebrated every year on June 25, “the day he was born for heaven.”
Next, the official portrait of the new Blessed was unveiled and the relic – a bone fragment – of Father Moisés Lira Serafín was presented, to the applause of all the bishops, priests, nuns and faithful present, who packed the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadeloupe.
Cardinal Semeraro’s homily at the beatification of Father Moisés Lira Serafín
In his homily, the Vatican prefect highlighted that the new Blessed “when he spoke about God, he spoke like a true son and like a true father, doing so with a tenderness that was impressive.”
After recalling some of the Mexican priest’s difficulties, such as the death of his mother when he was five years old, or his father’s various trips for work, the cardinal highlighted that, despite everything, “his character continued to be happy and joking. In this our blessed man can represent a model for people who had a difficult childhood and youth.
The cardinal also indicated that Father Moisés “loved to make everyone happy and his joy came from within him, certainly because of his stable relationship with God. His joy was a combination of different virtues and his goal was to make others happy.”
The prefect then cited the testimony of one of the witnesses in the priest’s beatification process: “I personally saw Father Moisés very sick and prostrate and yet he joked with us in the midst of his numerous illnesses, trying not to be a burden for us.”
Another witness said: “His source of joy was doing the will of God, like Jesus.” “This is how Blessed Moses lived the littleness that the Gospel tells us about,” the cardinal highlighted.
“His special charisma for the spiritual direction that he exercised not only in the sacrament of penance to which he dedicated 6 to 8 hours a day, but in the accompaniment of many people whom he guided in their choice of life,” continued the cardinal. .
“His spiritual childhood was transformed into spiritual fatherhood with which he instilled trust in God and security in hearts, with which he elevated the spirit, a deeply felt need in today’s world.”
At the end of his homily, Cardinal Semeraro prayed that the Virgin of Guadalupe would continue to guide Mexicans in the face of the many challenges of today’s world. “May the example and intercession of Blessed Moses help us in all this. Amen,” he concluded.
Who is Moisés Lira Serafín, the new Mexican blessed?
Moisés Lira Serafin is a Mexican priest of the Catholic Church and founder of a congregation of nuns. He was born in Zacatlán, Puebla, on September 16, 1893.
In his youth he met the venerable P. Félix de Jesús Rougierfounder of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, a congregation he joined as the first religious of the community that was just beginning.
He made his first profession on February 4, 1917 and was ordained a priest on May 14, 1922. On December 25, he made his final vows.
In 1923 he dedicated himself to being a confessor, during a smallpox epidemic in Mexico. In 1926 he celebrated Mass in homes and brought the Eucharist to the sick, in the midst of religious persecution against the Catholic Church.
Later he studied Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. In 1928 he returned to Mexico and served as spiritual director.
He used to say that “it is necessary to be very small to be a great saint.” He was known as “the apostle of goodness” and was a man of deep prayer, also caring for the sick, especially priests.
He founded in Mexico the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculatenuns who were in charge of carrying the relic of the new Blessed at the beatification Mass this Saturday.
Father Moisés Lira Serafín died in Mexico City on June 25, 1950, after suffering from cerebral complications. He was 56 years old.
His cause for beatification began in 2008. On March 28, 2013, Holy Thursday, Pope Francis approved the decree that recognized his heroic virtues.
The miracle of his beatification, approved by the Holy Father on December 14, 2023, was the miraculous healing of a baby in her mother’s womb and for this reason some want him to be declared protector of pregnant women.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.