VATICAN CITY, APR 27, 2003 (VIS) - Today, the Second Sunday of Easter, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, John Paul II beatified six Italian Servants of God, saying that in each of them "the loving and surprising mercy of God was manifested in a different way."
The Pope said in his homily that Blessed Giacomo Alberione, priest and founder of the Pauline Family, "felt the need to make Jesus Christ, the way, truth and life, known 'to the men of our time with the means of our time', as he liked to say. ... May his spiritual sons and daughters maintain intact the spirit of their origins in order to correspond appropriately to the demands of evangelization in the world today."
Speaking about the priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Blessed Marco d'Aviano, the Holy Father emphasized that "this itinerant contemplative carried out a vast spiritual renewal on the streets of Europe thanks to courageous preaching as well as several miracles." The new blessed, he added, reminds the European continent "that its unity will more stable if it is based on its common Christian roots."
"It is surprising," he continued, "what God accomplished through Maria Cristina Brando", virgin and foundress of the Congregation of Expiatory Victims of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. "Her spirituality was an expiatory and eucharistic spirituality that is articulated ... as 'two branches that come from the same trunk': love for God and for neighbor."
John Paul II said that Blessed Eugenia Ravasco, virgin and foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, "dedicated herself entirely to spreading the love of the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Contemplating these two hearts, she was passionate about service to her neighbor and lived life with joy for the young and the poor."
When referring to Blessed Maria Domenica Mantovani, virgin and co-foundress of the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, he said, "her way of always being faithful to the will of God, by whom she felt loved and called, until her last breath was extraordinary. What a beautiful example of holiness for every believer!"
The Holy Father concluded by saying that Blessed Guilia Salzano, virgin and foundress of the Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart, "was an apostle of the new evangelization, in which apostolic activity was united to prayer, offered continuously in a special way for the conversion of people who were 'indifferent'. This new blessed encourages us to persevere in the faith and never to lose confidence in God."
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