FIVE SERVANTS OF GOD BEATIFIED, INCLUDING FIRST PUERTO RICAN

VATICAN CITY, APR 29, 2001 (VIS) - This morning in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II presided over the Eucharistic Celebration during which he beatified Servants of God Manuel Gonzalez Garcia (1877-1940); Marie-Anne Blondin (1809-1890); Caterina Volpicelli (1839-1894); Caterina Cittadini (1801-1857); and Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodriguez Santiago (1918-1963).

In his homily, the Holy Father said that the new Spanish Blessed, Bishop Manuel Gonzalez Garcia, dedicated himself "to spreading Eucharistic devotion," founded the Congregation of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth and is "a model of Eucharistic faith, whose example continues to speak to the Church of today."
Layman Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodriguez Santiago, "the first Puerto Rican elevated to the glory of the altars, ... emphasized the universal vocation to holiness of all Christians and the importance that every baptized person respond to this vocation in a conscious and responsible way."

Canadian Marie-Anne Blondin founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne "for the education of the poor children of rural areas, with the goal of overcoming illiteracy. ... She drew interior strength from the contemplation of the Cross, showing us that life in union with Christ is the most sure means of mysteriously bearing fruit and fulfilling the mission willed by God."

John Paul II recalled that Italian Blessed Caterina Volpicelli, virgin, and foundress of the Servants of the Sacred Heart, "knew how to always draw from the Eucharist that missionary ardor which urged her to express her vocation in the Church, docilely submissive to the Pastors and prophetically intent to promote the laity and new forms of consecrated life."

The "profound capacity to love" of Italian Blessed Caterina Cittadini, foundress of the Ursuline Sisters of Somasca, "sustained by a great emotional equilibrium, is noted by those who knew her. Orphaned from a tender age, she herself became a loving mother to orphans."

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