POPE RECEIVES PILGRIMS WHO CAME FOR CANONIZATIONS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 11, 2001 (VIS) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father received the pilgrims who participated yesterday morning in the canonization of Blesseds Luigi Scrosoppi, Agostino Roscelli, Bernardo da Corleone, Teresa Eustochio Verzeri, and Rafqa Petra Choboq Ar-Rayes.

John Paul II emphasized that St. Luigi Scrosoppi "is the model of priestly life conducted in a constant search for God."

The Pope recalled St. Agostino Roscelli's "indivisible love for God and his brethren constitutes the fundamental and identifying line of his spirituality."

The Pope affirmed that St. Bernardo da Corleone, "with his personal story interwoven with great civil and religious passions, and with a sense marked by justice and truth in the midst of many situations of suffering and misery, embodies, in a certain sense, the image of the present-day saint."

"To learn from the Heart of Jesus, letting herself be directed by the sentiments of that Heart and instilling them in the service of her brethren: this is the message that Teresa Eustochio Verzeri transmits to us as well, at the dawn of the new millennium, inviting each of us to actively cooperate in the evangelizing action of the Church."

Finally, speaking of St. Rafqa Petra Choboc Ar-Rayes, the Holy Father affirmed that "in the Middle East, devastated by many bloody conflicts and by many unjust sufferings, the witness of this Lebanese religious remains a source of faith for all those subjected to many trials."

"May the sick, the afflicted, the war refugees and all the victims of the hatred of today and yesterday, find in St. Rafqa a travelling companion in order that, through her intercession, they continue to seek in obscurity reasons to continue to hope and to build peace!".

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