NEW SAINTS LOVED CHRIST IN NEEDIEST BROTHERS AND SISTERS

VATICAN CITY, APR 18, 1999 (VIS) - During the Mass this morning in St. Peter's Square, the Pope canonized Blesseds Marcellin Joseph Benoit Champagnat, Giovanni Calabria and Agostina Livia Pietrantoni.

The new saints, said the Holy Father in his homily, "adored and welcomed Christ in the Eucharist, loved him in their most needy brothers and sisters, recognized the imprints of his plan of salvation in the events of daily life."

St. Marcellin, French priest of the Society of Mary, founder of the Institute of the Little Brothers of Mary (Marist Brothers of the Schools), "was sensitive to the spiritual and educational needs of his time, especially concerning religious ignorance and situations of abandonment which youth knew particularly well." He added that "Fr. Champagnat is also a model for parents and teachers, he helps them to look at young people with hope, and to love them totally, encouraging a true human, moral and spiritual formation."

John Paul II said that, in St. Giovanni Calabria, Italian priest and founder of the Congregations of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence (male and female branches), "shine forth ardent faith, true charity, a spirit of sacrifice, love of poverty, zeal for souls and faithfulness to the Church."

Referring to the Italian St. Agostina, of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jeanne Anthide Thouret, virgin, he said: "The Gospel ideal of love for one's neighbor, particularly for the most needy, the sick and the abandoned, also led Agostina to holiness. ... Ready to make any sacrifice, and as a heroic witness of charity, she paid with her own blood the price of faithfulness to Love."

At the end of Mass, and before praying the Regina Coeli, the Pope said: "Mary, whom we invoke as Queen of Peace, in these days of great concern for the conflict in Yugoslavia, give us the precious gift of peace especially for that beloved martyred land which is suffering. May the strength of peaceful co-existence and dialogue prevail over ethnic cleansing and the violence of arms!"

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