The Catholic Church has 14 new saints

Pope Francis presided over a massive Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in which he canonized 14 new saints: the Italian priest Giuseppe Allamano, Sr. Elena Guerra, also Italian, Sister. Canadian Marie-Léonie Paradis and 11 martyrs murdered for their faith in Damascus, among whom were 7 Spanish friars.

Since early in the morning, thousands of faithful, especially arrivals and relatives of the new saints, from different countries were arriving around the Vatican to witness the ceremony on October 20.

Pope Francis arrived at the square minutes before 10:30 am (Rome time). At the beginning of the Mass, Cardinal Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, read the biography of the new saints.

Next, accompanied by the postulators who defended the cause of canonization, the cardinal read the petition for the rite to proceed. Next, Pope Francis read the corresponding formula to declare them saints.

God’s style is service

Taking the Gospel of Saint Mark as a reference, Pope Francis invited the faithful at the beginning of his homily to think that Jesus also asks each one: “What do you want me to do for you?” “Can you drink from my same chalice?”

Through these questions, according to the Pontiff, “Jesus reveals the bond and expectations that the disciples have of him, with the lights and shadows typical of any relationship.”

He went on to explain that the disciples initially see the Messiah with the “logic of power,” while Jesus, on the other hand, “digs deeper, listens and reads the heart.”

Thus, he reveals to them that He is not the Messiah that they think, but that “he is the God of love, who lowers himself to reach the humble; who becomes weak to raise up the weak; who works for peace and not for war; “that he came to serve and not to be served.”

He also highlighted that “on his right and left there will be two thieves, crucified like Him on the cross and not seated on the thrones of power; two thieves nailed with Christ in pain and not seated in glory.”

In this sense, he stressed that “those who follow Christ, if they want to be great, must serve, learning from Him.” Pope Francis also recalled that He “helps us to think no longer according to the world’s criteria, but according to the style of God, who becomes the last so that the last are exalted and become the first.”

He specified that Jesus’ questions are often incomprehensible to us, “but by following Him, walking in His footsteps and welcoming the gift of His love that transforms our way of thinking, we too can learn God’s style: service.”

“This is what we should long for: not power, but service. “Service is the Christian way of life,” he said.

He explained that this “is not a list of things to do, as if, once done, we can consider our shift over.”

“Service is born from love and love knows no boundariesdoes not make calculations, is consumed and given. It is not limited to producing to obtain results, it is not occasional assistance, but something that is born from the heart, from a heart renewed by love and in love.”

When we learn to serve, the Holy Father continued, “every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy, becomes a reflection of God’s love. And so we continue the work of Jesus in the world,” he added.

“Let us ask for the intercession of the new saints”

He then stressed that “in this light we can remember the disciples of the Gospel who are canonized today.”

Throughout the eventful history of humanity, “they were faithful servants, men and women who They served in martyrdom and in joylike brother Manuel Ruiz López and his companions. They are priests and consecrated women fervent with missionary passion, like Father José Allamano, Sister María Leonia Paradis and Sister Elena Guerra.”

These new saints, according to the Pontiff, “lived according to the style of Jesus: service. The faith and apostolate that they carried out did not feed in them worldly desires or desires for power, but, on the contrary, they became servants of their brothers, creative in doing good, firm in difficulties, generous to the end. .

“Let us confidently ask for his intercession, so that we too can follow Christ, imitate him in service and become witnesses of hope for the world,” he concluded.

The new saints

Among the new saints is a priest whose intercession led to the miraculous healing of a man mauled by a jaguar, a woman who convinced a Pope to call a global novena to the Holy Spirit, a nun nicknamed “the humble among the humble.” and 8 friars and 3 laymen killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.

This is Giuseppe Allamano, Italian priest and founder of the Missionaries of the Consolata. More than a thousand missionaries have traveled to Rome to attend the canonization Mass.

Allamano has been canonized after the Vatican recognized a unique miracle attributed to his intercession: the healing of a man who was attacked by a jaguar in the Amazon rainforest.

Known as an “apostle of the Holy Spirit,” Elena Guerra helped convince Pope Leo XIII to exhort all Catholics to pray a novena to the Holy Spirit before Pentecost in 1895.

Guerra is the founder of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, a congregation of nuns recognized by the Church in 1882 that continues today in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Canadian Sister Marie-Léonie Paradis founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. Pope John Paul II called Paradis the “humble among the humble” when he beatified her during his visit to Montreal in 1984, the first beatification to take place on Canadian soil.

The Church has also gained 11 new martyred saints who were killed for refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam. The “Martyrs of Damascus” They were Manuel Ruiz López and 7 fellow friars and the lay brothers Francisco, Mooti and Raffaele Massabki.