Who is the lead ACTOR in the Causes of Beatification?
Many people think that the Congregation for the Causes of Saints is the “factory of the Saints”, that is the one that works and acts to favour Beatifications and Canonizations. But it is not so; on the contrary, it is the opposite: its task is to oversee the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passing through the steps of a declaration of “heroic virtues” and beatification, in the sense, it is very strict in the selection of the Causes that must go ahead and those that must be either blocked or in any case suspended.
Whoever has to work to bring the Causes forward must be the Actor of the Cause, in our case the Provinces, because the General Curia cannot take an interest in all the Causes in the world. Through the Postulator or Vice Postulator, the Provinces must demonstrate the importance, relevance and appropriateness of the Cause. The Actor and Postulator must above all demonstrate the Fame of holiness that accompanies the figure of the person to be proposed for Beatification.
FAME OF HOLINESS
The requirement of the Fame of Holiness has become increasingly necessary and required, to the point of becoming indispensable for the Bishop who accepts or does not accept the “Libellus”, that is, the Dossier that the Postulator presents to him.
The Sanctorum Mater, the most recent document (17 May 2007) updating that of the Reformation of John Paul II (Divinus Perfectionis Magister of 25 May 1983) reads:
Art. 7 – § 1. Before deciding the beginning of the cause, the diocesan bishop will have to verify whether among a significant part of the people of God, the servant of God enjoys an authentic and widespread reputation for holiness or martyrdom, together with an authentic and widespread reputation for signs.
THE ROLE OF THE VICE POSTULATOR
The task of the Vice Postulator is to represent the Postulator in a particular Diocese before the competent Bishop; the competent Bishop is the bishop of the place where the Servant of God (the person whose beatification is requested) died. The Vice Postulator is appointed by the Postulator General, who in turn is appointed by the Actor (anyone can be an Actor, provided he or she assumes responsibility for the conduct of the Cause). As far as the Congregation of the Mission and the Company of the Daughters of Charity are concerned, frequent appointment of the Postulator General is not necessary, because he is appointed once and for all by the Superior General; therefore, he is called the Postulator General.
The Postulator in general follows all the Causes, but none in particular. Therefore, the role of the Vice-Postulator is essential in the diocesan phase of the process. With the Roman Phase, that is when the Process, once completed is brought to Rome, his role ends. He will be required for further questioning when any additional information or collaborations are requested in the composition of the Positio super virtutibus or super martyrio, which is the book that is written by the Postulation and by the historical collaborators.
THE STATE OF THE CASES IN PROGRESS
We can divide our Causes into 2 groups: Those that are about to reach important and IMMINENT milestones and those that are still in the propaedeutic and initial stage. Naturally, it is for the latter that the collaboration of the vice postulators is most urgently requested.
IMMINENT
Those causes that have the examination of a miracle in progress are in the group of imminent beatifications. We also include here those that do not have a miracle under examination but have reached the final stage: they need “only” a miracle. Our task is to foster prayer, devotion, and knowledge for a miracle. “Ask and you will obtain”.
Blessed Federico OZANAM: He will become a SAINT if they accept the miracle that took place on 09 April 2014 in Belo Horizonte, Diocese of Mariana (José Antônio da Luz Nascimiento). The international President of the SSVP, Renato Lima and the Vice President Sebastian Gramajo have worked hard to promote the Process delivered in Rome in October 2020.
Blessed Martyrs of Spain: Beatified in Tarragona on 13 October 2013 and in Madrid, 11 Nov. 2017 and Blessed Martyrs of France: Beatified in the first half of the 20th century. For these groups of martyrs, a miracle is enough to arrive at the Canonization. Only one miracle can be valid for the whole group.
Franz GNIDOVEÇ, Venerable: He would become BLESSED, if they accept the miracle that happened in El Alto (Vania Melady) in 2017: with the decisive collaboration of Fr. Cyril DE LA BARRE DE NANTEUIL the Process in El Alto was celebrated.
Antonio VIÇOSO, Venerable, Archbishop of Mariana. The healing achieved in Chile by Fr. Celio Dell’Amore in 2000 was considered extraordinary, but not inexplicable.
Salvatore MICALIZZI, Venerable, great preacher and formator of the Clergy in Naples, esteemed by Saint Pius X. An extraordinary healing that took place in Naples in 1998 was considered by all the Doctors of the Medical Council of the Congregation of the Saints to be exceptional and surprising, but not completely inexplicable.
Jan HAVLIC, would become BLESSED, without a miracle, because he died a martyr in Slovakia on Christmas 1965: with the great collaboration of Fr. Emil HOFFMANN, the process celebrated in Bratislava was brought to Rome this year 2020.
Franz. SCHRAVEN and 8 Companions Martyrs. The Causes of the Martyrs in China are currently blocked for diplomatic reasons. But in the case of these martyrs killed in China, they are martyrs who were killed by the Japanese. Therefore, we are finishing the Positio super Martyrio in Rome with the cooperation of Fr. Wiel BELLEMAKERS C.M. and some of his collaborators.
Fernandez MASARNAU: Founder of the SSVP in Spain; he will soon become Venerable: in fact, the “Positio super virtutibus” (written by Sr Teresa Candelas FdC) was approved by the Theological Consultors on 07 November 2019.
CAUSES THAT ARE STILL IN THE FIRST TWO PHASES (either Diocesan or Roman):
Émile LISSON, Primate of Peru, who died in Valencia. FR. Corpus DELGADO is very generously dedicating himself to completing the Positio super virtutibus, so that this admirable Servant of God, exemplary for his heroic humility and obedience to the Pope, who asked him to resign pro bono pacis during the political controversies of his enemies. Holy and zealous archbishop, truly animated by the Vincentian spirit in favour of the poor. We await news of a miracle that appears to have occurred in Peru.
Bonaventura CODINA, (Hostarlic, Girona 1785- Las Palmas1857) Bishop of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in whose Cathedral he is buried with great honour. The Diocese is the Actress of the Cause, but has appointed Fr. Giuseppe Guerra as Postulator and Fr. Corpus Delgado as collaborator, assuming all the burdens and responsibilities of the Cause. Corpus is revising, integrating and completing a Positio super viertutibus which was written, but not according to the methodology required by the Congregation for the causes of Saints.
Józef FLORKO and 10 other CM MARTYRS of the Nazi period in Poland. Fr. Adam BUROWSKI, Provincial Secretary in Krakow, has the task of unravelling the great difficulty due to the fact that the Cause united in a Group of 80 Martyrs is entrusted to a single person, the Rector of the Polish College in Rome.
Giambattista MANZELLA. Thanks be to God and thanks to Pope Francis, the obstacle placed at the Holy Office has been cleared and the Process finally made available to the Postulation, is being studied by the Relator of the Congregation for the causes of the Saints, in view of the composition of the Positio super virtutibus to obtain from the Pope the declaration of the heroic nature of the virtues. The Vice Postulator who is working hard on this Cause is Fr. Pietro PIGOZZI.
Giuseppe ALLOATTI. We have not yet succeeded in obtaining the appointment of the members of the Tribunal in the Diocese of Turin, where the Servant of God died, in order to be able to begin the Cause which has obtained the Nulla Osta from the Holy See. Certainly the Cause will be long for this Missionary, friend of Pope John XXIII when he was Nuncio to Bulgaria. There are many writings in the Bulgarian language that will have to be translated; the historical research that the Historical Commission will have to organise will be demanding. We ask Fr. Mario GROSSI for a further commitment to encourage the Archbishop to establish the Tribunal.
Jacque-Émile SONTAG and three fellow martyrs in IRAN. They died as martyrs in Iran (Persia) in 1918. But the process will take place in Paris, where the Archbishop received the competence, given the enormous difficulties that there would be faced in Iran. Vice-Postulator Fr. François HISS, who knows the situation in Iran very well, is in special contact with the Apostolic Administrator of Hispahan, our brother Fr. Youssef, and also with the martyr’s family in Strasbourg, where a monument has been erected in his home town of Dinsheim sur Bruche.
Jan STRAŠEK, the Process should not take long to begin in Zagreb, the diocese where the martyr died (Svetice, Palm Sunday 30 March 1947), surrounded by a great reputation for holiness and martyrdom (the Vice Postulator in charge of the Diocesan Process is Fr. Dario GRBAC).
Wenceslaw SZUNICWICZ, born in Poland, missionary in China, called the Holy Doctor, venerated above all in Brazil; he died in Irate (Curitiba) in 1963. We asked Fr. Carlos Luiz BACHELADENSKI, Vice Postulator, to follow the Cause which is about to begin in the Diocese of Ponta Gossa, with great enthusiasm on the part of the Bishop. The terrible pandemic of Covid 19 has unfortunately slowed down the beginning of the Tribunal Sessions.
George SALVAIRE born in Tarn, Albi (France) in 1847, died on February 4, 1899 in Lujan (Argentina) where he founded the famous Sanctuary. The Cause is being carried out in the Diocese of Lujan by the Diocese (Postulator: Mons. Juan Guillermo Durán), naturally with the support of the Province of Argentina, although this is not its Actress.
Valerian GUEMES one of the first four Spanish Vincentians sent as missionaries to India in 1922. We have recently received a request from the North Indian Province, which asks to start the process of beatification in the Diocese of Berhampur, where the Servant of God died in 1978 in 88 years of age. The Vice Postulator is Fr. Francis PUTHENTHAYIL.
Stephanos II GATHHAS, Cardinal Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, our confrere (1920-2009). We have already made a formal request to His Beatitude Patriarch Ibrahin Isaac of the Coptic Catholics to begin the process of beatification, with the indispensable collaboration of the Vice-Postulator Fr Milad Sidky ZAKHARY C. M.
Fr Giuseppe Guerra, CM
Postulator General
