3. Petition to the Holy Father for the Canonization of
Blessed Louis Guanella
His
Holiness
BENEDICT XVI
Apostolic Palace
Vatican City
Most
Blessed Father,
First of all we would like to express to
Your Holiness our love, and present
the respectful homage of the Servants of Charity, the Daughters of St. Mary of
Providence, the Guanellian laity, and all the residents of the houses of the
Institutes of Blessed Luigi Guanella.
Our Founder, Bl. Luigi Guanella, was a great friend of Pope St. Pius X. He
has taught us to refer to the Vicar of Christ as “our North Star”.
By this letter, we would like to turn a petition to Your Holiness: that the
dream of seeing the canonization of our Blessed Father Luigi Guanella during
the year 2008-2009 may be fulfilled.
This is a year rich of events for the Guanellian family – Daughters of St.
Mary of Providence, Servants of Charity, Guanellian Cooperators – because they
are celebrating different centennials that have marked the history of their
Congregations.
In fact, the official dedication of the first house of the Sisters in Rome took
place on January 1908. The Founder, with the approval of the Holy Father Pius
X, named it “Pius X House”.
A hundred years ago, Father Luigi Guanella made the first religious
profession, together with his first collaborators, on the evening of March 24
th
,
1908 in the Sacred Heart Shrine in Como.
Our Sisters obtained the decree of pontifical approval of the “Daughters of
St. Mary of Providence Institute” on September 1908. Because of these joyful
occasions, the Guanellian Family, present in four continents now, has promoted
several initiatives of spiritual nature, that, from January 2008 through June 2009,
will accompany our religious family to celebrate these significant events in the
best way possible
.
Your Holiness, at the beginning of this year, the Postulator for the cause of
canonization of Blessed Luigi Guanella had delivered to the Congregation for
the Causes of Saints the documentation of the diocesan process, held in
Philadelphia, U.S.A., regarding a presumed miracle obtained through the
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intercession of our Blessed Founder in favor of a young worker, William
Glisson.
On March 30
th
, 2007, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints notified the
Postulator the validity of the diocesan process.
We confidently entrust to Your Holiness our desire that the celebration of
our Centennial may coincide with the canonization of our Founder, prophet of
charity and protector of the weakest.
We are aware of requesting a great gift. It calls for an acceleration of the
time needed to conclude the various steps regarding the examination of the
depositions of witnesses, that were collected by the diocesan process on the
presumed miracle.
We rely in the pastoral sensibility of Your Holiness who is favoring the
exaltation of credible witnesses of charity. This renewed attention on the
evangelical Charity toward the poor, so wonderfully underlined by your
Encyclical
Deus Caritas est, allows us to continue to dream and to pray, so that
the charism of charity, offered to the Church by the sanctity of Blessed Luigi
Guanella, may be presented to the universal Church during our Centennial Year
as a
secure path to reach holiness, and to be in solidarity with the weakest.
Along with this gift, dreamt of and prayed for, of the canonization of the
Founder, there is a visible gift of charity that the Institutes of Blessed Luigi
Guanella offers to the Diocese of Rome on the occasion of this Centennial: the
Daughters of St. Mary of Providence recall their 100 years of service at the “St.
Pius X House” on the Janiculum Hill, a house visited by both Pope Paul VI and
Pope John Paul II; the Servants of Charity are celebrating the re-dedication of a
completely restructured house located inside their Rehabilitation Center for
psycho-physically disabled in Via Aurelia Antica, 446. This building is added to
other three modern residences named after three evangelical locations, Nazareth,
Emmaus and Bethany.
The population of this “city of charity”, as it was described by the Servant
of God, John Paul II during his memorable visit on March 1981, today
gives hospitality to 400 psycho-physically disabled people, residents or daily
patients.
What an immense gift it would be for this suffering people to have the visit
of the Vicar of Christ to one of their houses! It would express our gratitude to
God, from whom comes every perfect gift, for these “ living miracles” visible
signs of Divine Providence toward her weakest children!
Our request is also supported by the true desire of our “Children”, “Senior
Citizens”, the “Masters of our houses” or “Good children” – as the Blessed
Founder used to call them –, who live in the expectation to meet the Pope, the
“father” of all, but especially their “father ”.
While we convey to Your Holiness our heartfelt gratitude for your wise and
profound teaching, and for the joyful witness of your love to Christ, we feel the
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