19 People are now closer to official sainthood

On May 23, 2024, Pope Francis authorized the publication of several decrees presented to him by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. In addition to Carlo Acutis, 12 future saints, three future blesseds and three venerables have been announced, as well as the forthcoming consistory to set the date for four canonizations.

Carlo Acutis is not the only blessed to be canonized in the near future. Fr. Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926), founder of the Consolata Missionaries, is also on the list. Pope Francis has signed a decree recognizing a second miracle attributed to the intercession of the man beatified by John Paul II in 1990.

Brought up in a pious family in Piedmont, in the land of Don Bosco, this priest was appointed rector of the Turin shrine of the Consolata, a post he held until his death. In 1901, he founded a men’s missionary order attached to his shrine, and a women’s branch in 1910. He was at the origin of World Missionary Day, instituted by Pius XI in 1926.

His religious order, which specializes in “young churches,” has around 2,000 members today. It seems to have taken on a new dimension under the pontificate of Francis, whose family hails from the same region as its founder. The pontiff has elevated one of its members to the cardinalate for the first time, in the person of the current youngest member of the College of Cardinals, 49-year-old Prefect Apostolic of Ulan Bator (Mongolia) Giorgio Marengo.

The date of his canonization and that of Carlo Acutis, as well as Canadian nun Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, and Blessed Elena Guerra, known as the Apostle of the Holy Spirit, will be determined at a forthcoming consistory, announced the dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

During his meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis also accepted the vote of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in favor of the canonization of the Eleven Martyrs of Syria, beatified in 1926 by Pius XI.

These eight Spanish and Austrian Franciscan friars and three lay Maronites were killed on July 9 and 10, 1860, in Damascus during the revolt of the Druze militia against the Christian populations of Lebanon and Syria. They were murdered because they refused to renounce their faith and convert to Islam as their attackers demanded.

One of the martyrs, Fr. Emmanuel Ruiz, realizing that death was inevitable and fearing that the tabernacle would be desecrated, went to the church to consume the Sacred Species when he was interrupted by the assailants. He then placed his head on the altar, where he was beheaded.

His companions were put to the sword, beaten with a sledgehammer, or butchered with an axe. The laymen, three brothers, were thrown from a tower.

Two other martyrs, victims of communism, are included in the new decrees approved by the pontiff. The first is Polish priest Stanislas Kostka Streich (1902-1938). This young diocesan priest, an ardent parish priest in Lubon, was badly perceived by communist supporters in his town, who tried to hinder his work, threatening him with death and desecrating his church.

During a Mass on February 27, 1938, he was assassinated by a communist who shot him several times. He is said to have tried to protect the altar boys before dying.

The second martyr was the Hungarian laywoman Mária Magdolna Bódi (1921 – 1945). This young girl from Szigliget was born out of wedlock to an alcoholic and socially excluded father. She turned to a Latin parish in her town, committing herself fervently and planning to become a nun. However, no congregation wanted her because of her social status.

Working in a factory, she decided to dedicate her chastity to God and joined a group supporting the poor and sick, gathering around her many other women and provoking several conversions. During the Second World War, she nursed the wounded and helped mothers.

In 1945, she was murdered by a Soviet soldier who had tried to rape her. Fighting back, she fired a pistol and wounded him, then tried to flee, but the man shot her several times. She died praying.

The Pope also signed a decree recognizing a first miracle attributed to the venerable Fr. Giovanni Merlini (1795-1873). This Umbrian native, who became a priest in 1818, joined the Missionaries of the Precious Blood after meeting its founder, St. Gaspard del Bufalo.

He was instrumental in the founding of a female branch of his order, the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, by St. Maria de Mattias, whose spiritual director he was. An ardent apostle of the “popular missions” in Italy, he was close to Pius IX, whom he accompanied into exile in Gaeta in 1848.

Giovanni Merlini became Moderator General of his order and died in a road accident in 1873. He was made venerable a century later by Paul VI.

Lastly, the Pope has agreed to the publication of decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of three servants of God. The first is the Italian Capuchin friar Guglielmo Gattiani (1914-1999) from the Bologna region, who lived a simple, poor existence, focused on contemplation and helping others. A close associate of Padre Pio, he was particularly devoted to St. Joseph.

The second venerable is Ismael de Tomelloso (1917-1938). This devout young man from Castile, a member of Catholic Action, witnessed the assassination of his parish priest in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. He was himself imprisoned and then forcibly conscripted into the Republican army.

The Republican army to which he belonged was defeated in 1938, but he refused to reveal his identity in order to share the fate of his comrades, even though they had abused him because of his faith. He then contracted tuberculosis and died in Saragossa.

The third venerable is another layman, the Italian politician and scientist Enrico Medi (1911-1974). A devout Catholic, he studied physics under Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi. He later married Enrica Zanini, with whom he had six daughters.

Supporting Pope Pius XII’s efforts to help the poor in the post-war period, he joined the Christian Democratic Party, for which he was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946, then as a deputy in 1948. He then resumed his scientific career, teaching at the University of Rome before becoming vice-president of Euratom, the European nuclear organization.

He took part in a program for the popularization of science for many years, took part in the government of Vatican City at the request of Paul VI, then returned to the Chamber of Deputies, taking a strong stand against the law allowing divorce. John Paul II often cited him as a model politician and Christian scientist.

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