At 5:00pm local time this afternoon (11:00am EDT), at the Holy See Press Centre, there was a Press Conference held in anticipation of the Canonization of Blessed Paul VI and Blessed Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez which will be celebrated on Sunday (14 October).
Present at this afternoon's Press Conference were His Eminence, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; and His Eminence, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador (El Salvador).
Paul VI will be canonized on 14 October of this year by our Pope Francis. He was the Pope of Vatican Council II. If John XXIII had the prophetic courage to open the great Ecumenical session, Paul VI had the mission to guide it, to conclude it and to make it enter into the life of the Church and of the world. Before his election to the Supreme Pontificate, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini had served as the principal collaborator of the Venerable Pius XII. Then he was very close to John XXIII. Having become Pope, it is he who created the cardinals who would be his successors: Albino Luciani, Karol Wojtyła and Joseph Ratzinger. Thus the figure and mission of Paul VI must be considered in this historical continuity of the living tradition of the Church.
Pope Montini, who died on August 6, 1978 on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, was a heroic and brilliant witness of Christ the light of the world. It is precisely this profound and convinced Christocentrism that constitutes the nucleus that propelled his spiritual profile and his extraordinary magisterium. The love of Jesus and his Church, for whose renewal he was committed with all his strength, was his guide usque ad finem. In this perspective we understand his life as a continuous journey of holiness, from infancy to priesthood, from his commitment to the Roman Curia to the Ambrosian chair, from pastoral activity to the Throne of Peter.
Giovanni Battista Montini personally knew the great twentieth-century dramas: the two World Wars, the totalitarian systems of fascism, Nazism and Communism, and then the extreme violence of terrorism. But the thorny questions were not lacking even within the Christian community: the years that immediately followed the Council were the most difficult and painful of his pontificate.
But in all these events, he was constantly sustained by that Spirit of Christ that nourished his interior life and many innumerable and courageous initiatives. Here, we mention some of the most obvious ones: liturgical reform, the internationalization of the Roman Curia with the establishment of new Dicasteries and the establishment of the Synod of Bishops. Another great novelty were his apostolic journeys to the different parts of the world at the service of evangelization and peace. From a doctrinal point of view, his magisterium was not far behind. Because of their pastoral immediacy, the general audience on Wednesday was particularly original (yet one of his initiatives, which would be followed by his Successors), which are a continuous catechesis for the People of God. His teachings illuminated many aspects of faith and Christian existence and shone for their commitment, sometimes heroic, to defending the truth, life, family, peace and the authenticity of love. Faithful to the program of his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam, Paul VI was continually the Pope of dialogue with everyone: within the Catholic Church, with Christian brothers of other Churches, with non-Christians and non-believers, and always with the passion of evangelization, to bring the light and the love of Christ to all people.
In synthesis and summit of the whole of his journey, we note in Paul VI, in a truly prophetic way, the great line of charity, sustained and motivated by a living and solid faith. To a priest in Milan who had asked him what was the most important thing for the formation of the seminarians, he replied: Teach them to treat Jesus as the friend of their heart; the priest must be in love with Jesus. It is from this love, lived and witnessed, that the great dynamic he universally proposes flowed: Christ, Church, World. We must love the Church - said Pope Montini - in its reality, simul sancta et semper purificanda (Lumen gentium, 8). It is the greatest antinomy that charity must know how to overcome and resolve. The heart of Paul VI overflowed in the expression of the purest spirituality of the Council: an interior reform of the Church, all oriented towards holiness, which unites prayer and dogma, charity and truth, and which animates the People of God in the diversity of vocations, in ecumenical dialogue, in its true openness to the world to better communicate the light of Christ. The whole life of Paul VI was animated by a great love of his neighbour, as a young lay person, and then as a priest, a bishop and as Pope. All of this was like a continuous growth and expansion of charity up to and including the Pope's love as Universal Pastor, Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd. He exercised this charity in particular in Rome during the Second World War, promoting charitable assistance and hospitality for those who were persecuted by Nazi-fascism, in a relevant way for the Jews, and then in his Milanese episcopate. As Pope, he was always committed to justice and peace, in the dynamic of the Gospel.
Famosissima (very famous), which is his expression, has practically become a proverb: Contemporary man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, or if he listens to teachers he does so because they are witnesses (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 41). Well, just this sentence seems to be the most authentic biography of the same Pontiff who pronounced it: Paul VI, himself the messenger of the light of Christ and an exceptional teacher of faith in God and in man.
Father Francesco Spinelli. Born in Milan on 14 April 1853, he lived during a very difficult period, but it was also a creative time, a period of construction of the new Italian society that was born after Unification. In this ecclesial and social context he sensed the urgency of the formation of the female world. He therefore acted in favour of the most destitute girls and, intensifying his commitment to serve Christ in the least of society, he gave life to schools and oratories, assistance to the sick, the disabled and the lonely elderly. In Rome he had the inspiration to start a community of young women who consecrated their lives to the Lord present in the Eucharist: in this way the intrinsic relationship that binds divine worship to the exercise of solidarity took on greater consistency and the visibility of fraternal love. In 1889, following an economic crisis to which he was completely foreign, he moved to the Diocese of Cremona. He peacefully concluded his earthly life on February 6, 1913. He was beatified by John Paul II in 1992.
Father Vincenzo Romano. Born in Torre del Greco, near Naples on 3 June 1751, he was ordained a priest in 1775. If he immediately poured out his ministry in constant service to the little ones and to the education of boys and young people, it was above all the disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 15 June 1794 that saw him as the protagonist of the material, spiritual and moral rebirth of his city, of which he became parish priest in 1799. Depth and rigor in the search for the will of God were conjugated in him with a charge of exciting charity that accompanied him to the last days of his life. He died on 20 December 1831. The Supreme Pontiff, Paul VI declared him Blessed in 1963.
Mother Maria Caterina Kasper. She was born on 26 May 1820 in Dernbach, a small village in Germany. Strong and an extrovert, she spent her adolescence working in the fields and even splitting stones for road construction. In her shines the virtue of hope, which pushed her to look ahead, overcoming the temptation of mediocrity and setting off on the path of evangelical perfection. In her undoubtedly uncomfortable context, she took the initiative of founding an Institute of nuns at the service of the most humble social classes: thus, in 1845, the first nucleus of the Poor Servants of Jesus Christ was born, engaged in welcoming and promoting the poor. She constantly visited their houses, more and more numerous, in order to meet all their problems and difficulties in person, and she arrived unexpectedly, not to receive honours but moving on foot and often in precarious conditions. Mother Maria Caterina was struck by a heart attack and died on 2 February 1898. The Supreme Pontiff, Paul VI listed her among the Blessed in 1978.
Mother Nazaria Ignazia di Santa Teresa di Gesù March Mesa. She was born in Madrid on 10 January 1889; but in 1905, her large family moved to Mexico. Yet this was not yet the last destination of her journey. In fact, if in Mexico she perceived the signs of the vocation to religious life and entered the Institute of the Sisters of the Abandoned Elders, his most significant field of action would be Bolivia, where she was sent in 1912. Here, she came into contact with the reality of extreme poverty and authentic degradation. Nazaria Ignazia put her natural gifts and talents of grace at the service of human promotion of that environment and, in 1926, founded the Congregation of the Crucified Missionary Sisters of the Church, for service to the poor and for the promotion of women, the proclamation of the Word of God and religious formation of children and adults, including through missions, spiritual exercises and the press. Her life was in grave danger both in Bolivia and in Spain during the civil war (1936-1939): in fact for a certain period she had returned to her country of origin. In 1942 she went from Spain to Buenos Aires, but her health conditions, already worrying, suddenly got worse. She died on 6 July 1943. The Supreme Pontiff, John Paul II celebrated her beatification in 1992.
Nunzio Sulprizio. Born on 13 April 1817 in Pescosansonesco in the Italian Province of Pescara, even in childhood he experienced pain, having been orphaned. It would be up to his maternal grandmother to educate him humanly and in a Christian way but, after the death of his grandmother, Nunzio was welcomed into the home of one of his uncles, Domenico Luciani, who had no particular regard for his young age and for his health conditions, which, already precarious, worsened due to the hard work - as a blacksmith - which he had imposed upon him. Tuberculosis in his bones forced him to move to Naples, where he was well looked after by an officer of the Bourbon army, Colonel Felice Wochinger; but, when his disease worsened, he had to be admitted to the Hospital for the Incurables. Here he finally received his much desired First Communion. In a crescendo of faith, Nunzio participated in the mystery of the cross of Christ, concluding his earthly journey on 5 May 1836, at only nineteen years of age. The Supreme Pontiff, Leo XIII recognized the heroic nature of his virtues in 1890, proposing him as a model for the young. On December 1, 1963, Paul VI proclaimed him Blessed. The Synod of Bishops, who during these days is reflecting on the pressing problems facing the world of youth, will be able to discover in him the lines of a perennially current path.
Present at this afternoon's Press Conference were His Eminence, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; and His Eminence, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador (El Salvador).
Intervention presented by His Eminence, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu
Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
Pope Montini, who died on August 6, 1978 on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, was a heroic and brilliant witness of Christ the light of the world. It is precisely this profound and convinced Christocentrism that constitutes the nucleus that propelled his spiritual profile and his extraordinary magisterium. The love of Jesus and his Church, for whose renewal he was committed with all his strength, was his guide usque ad finem. In this perspective we understand his life as a continuous journey of holiness, from infancy to priesthood, from his commitment to the Roman Curia to the Ambrosian chair, from pastoral activity to the Throne of Peter.
Giovanni Battista Montini personally knew the great twentieth-century dramas: the two World Wars, the totalitarian systems of fascism, Nazism and Communism, and then the extreme violence of terrorism. But the thorny questions were not lacking even within the Christian community: the years that immediately followed the Council were the most difficult and painful of his pontificate.
But in all these events, he was constantly sustained by that Spirit of Christ that nourished his interior life and many innumerable and courageous initiatives. Here, we mention some of the most obvious ones: liturgical reform, the internationalization of the Roman Curia with the establishment of new Dicasteries and the establishment of the Synod of Bishops. Another great novelty were his apostolic journeys to the different parts of the world at the service of evangelization and peace. From a doctrinal point of view, his magisterium was not far behind. Because of their pastoral immediacy, the general audience on Wednesday was particularly original (yet one of his initiatives, which would be followed by his Successors), which are a continuous catechesis for the People of God. His teachings illuminated many aspects of faith and Christian existence and shone for their commitment, sometimes heroic, to defending the truth, life, family, peace and the authenticity of love. Faithful to the program of his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam, Paul VI was continually the Pope of dialogue with everyone: within the Catholic Church, with Christian brothers of other Churches, with non-Christians and non-believers, and always with the passion of evangelization, to bring the light and the love of Christ to all people.
In synthesis and summit of the whole of his journey, we note in Paul VI, in a truly prophetic way, the great line of charity, sustained and motivated by a living and solid faith. To a priest in Milan who had asked him what was the most important thing for the formation of the seminarians, he replied: Teach them to treat Jesus as the friend of their heart; the priest must be in love with Jesus. It is from this love, lived and witnessed, that the great dynamic he universally proposes flowed: Christ, Church, World. We must love the Church - said Pope Montini - in its reality, simul sancta et semper purificanda (Lumen gentium, 8). It is the greatest antinomy that charity must know how to overcome and resolve. The heart of Paul VI overflowed in the expression of the purest spirituality of the Council: an interior reform of the Church, all oriented towards holiness, which unites prayer and dogma, charity and truth, and which animates the People of God in the diversity of vocations, in ecumenical dialogue, in its true openness to the world to better communicate the light of Christ. The whole life of Paul VI was animated by a great love of his neighbour, as a young lay person, and then as a priest, a bishop and as Pope. All of this was like a continuous growth and expansion of charity up to and including the Pope's love as Universal Pastor, Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd. He exercised this charity in particular in Rome during the Second World War, promoting charitable assistance and hospitality for those who were persecuted by Nazi-fascism, in a relevant way for the Jews, and then in his Milanese episcopate. As Pope, he was always committed to justice and peace, in the dynamic of the Gospel.
Famosissima (very famous), which is his expression, has practically become a proverb: Contemporary man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, or if he listens to teachers he does so because they are witnesses (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 41). Well, just this sentence seems to be the most authentic biography of the same Pontiff who pronounced it: Paul VI, himself the messenger of the light of Christ and an exceptional teacher of faith in God and in man.
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