VATICAN City, Oct. 20, 2012—Declaration of sainthood is a tool for New Evangelization, says an Australian cardinal.
Speaking at a press briefing forty-eight hours away from the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod, George Cardinal Pell of Syndey, Australia acknowledged the potential of having a new saint welcomed to the Church could be an effective means for New Evangelization.
During the daily press briefing on the Synod for Bishops for the English-speaking journalists, Cardinal Pell said that “having a saint from one’s own country, shows that you don’t have to be from a banished millennium or from a world that has disappeared to be a heroic follower of Christ.”
He cited their experience during the canonization of the first Australian saint, St. Mary MacKillop in 2010.
Cardinal Pell said that canonizations in general would provide great boosts in faith-building and faith-sharing in national congregations of the faithful, with the hope that the saints being canonized would “inspire and encourage local people to follow [the saints’] footsteps.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See Mercedes Arrastia-Tuason acknowledged the ‘multiplier effect’ that the news of the canonization has been creating in Rome and in the Philippines.
She said that in general, enthusiasm has been so high among all Filipinos in Italy and around the world.
She added, it should follow that Catholicism in the Philippines, especially the laity, would receive a great encouragement from this event.
Ambassador Tuason said Calungsod has personally inspired her to continue being charitable, even to the point of death; and to devote herself to the formation of faith in the young, whom Blessed Pedro Calungsod must have loved dearly. [Aaron James R. Veloso]
