POPE BEATIFIES EIGHT SERVANTS OF GOD FROM FOUR COUNTRIES

VATICAN CITY, NOV 4, 2001 (VIS) - At 10 this morning, the Pope celebrated the Eucharist in St. Peter's Square and beatified Servants of God: Pavol Peter Gojdic (1888-1960), Metod Dominik Trcka (1886-1959), Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), Bartolomeu Fernandes dos Martires (1514-1590), Luigi Tezza (1841-1923), Paolo Manna (1872-1952), Gaetana Sterni (1827-1889), and Maria Pilar Izquierdo Albero (1906-1945).

In his homily, the Holy Father said that the Slovak bishop Pavol Peter Gojdic, of the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat, "after the communist regime made the Greek-Catholic Church illegal, was arrested and imprisoned. Thus he began a long calvary of suffering, mistreatment and humiliations, leading to his death for his faith in Christ and for his love for the Church and the Pope."

The Slovak priest Metod Dominik Trcka, he said, "placed his entire existence at the service of the Gospel and the salvation of his brethren, arriving at the supreme sacrifice of his life. ... With the advent of the communist regime, he, as his other Redemptorist brothers, was taken to a concentration camp" and, "due to hardships and sickness, died after having forgiven his persecutors."

Giovanni Antonio Farina, Italian bishop, founder of the Teaching Sisters of St. Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts, "was characterized by a vast apostolic activity, constantly directed to the doctrinal and spiritual formation of the clergy and the faithful. ... In all of the pages of his writings emerges a lively vision of the person of Jesus, center of the life and raison d'etre of the mission."

Of Luigi Tezza, Italian priest of the Order of Clerics Regular, Ministers of the Sick, and founder of the Daughters of St. Camillus, John Paul II emphasized the "shining example of an existence entirely offered up to the exercise of charity and mercy towards those who suffer in body and in spirit."
"Blessed Gaetana Sterni, having understood that the will of God is always love, also dedicated herself with indefatigable charity to the excluded and the suffering."

The archbishop of Braga, Portugal, Bartolomeu Fernandes dos Martires, of the Order of Preachers, "dedicated himself with great solicitude and apostolic zeal to the safeguarding and renewal of the Church."

In conclusion the Pope affirmed that the "brief life, only 39 years," of Spanish Blessed Maria Pilar Izquierdo Albero, virgin, foundress of the Missionary Work of Jesus and Mary, "can be summarized by affirming that she wished to praise God, offering Him her love and her sacrifice." He added the hope that her example "of self-denial and of generosity help others to commit themselves ever more to the service of the needy."

At the end of the Mass and before the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father thanked Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, dean of the College of Cardinals, for the best wishes offered at the beginning of the Mass in the name of everyone present in honor of his name day, the memorial of St. Charles Borromeo. "I gladly take this occasion to thank also all those who offered me their best wishes for my name day, and I return them from my heart with prayer, which I raise in a special way for all of those who share the name of the great Bishop of Milan."

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