VATICAN CITY, 22 NOV 2009 (VIS) - After praying the Angelus at midday today, the Pope recalled today's ceremony in Nazareth, Israel, for the beatification of Sr. Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas, born in Jerusalem in 1843 to a Christian family of nineteen children.
"To her", said the Holy Father, "goes the merit of having founded a congregation formed exclusively of local women with the aim of teaching religion, combating illiteracy and improving the condition of women in that time, in the same land where Jesus Himself had exalted their dignity".
"The beatification of such a significant female figure is of particular comfort to the Catholic community in the Holy Land, and is an invitation for them always to entrust themselves, with firm hope, to Divine Providence and to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary", he concluded.
Benedict XVI then went on to refer to yesterday's Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple, which also marks "'pro orantibus' Day, in support of cloistered religious communities".
He invited everyone to support such communities and publicly thanked the nuns who successively occupy the small cloistered convent founded by John Paul II in the Vatican: Poor Clares, Carmelites, Benedictines and, most recently, Visitandines.
"Your prayer, dear sisters, is very valuable for my ministry", he told them.
ANG/BEATIFICATION NUNS/... VIS 20091123 (230)
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