VATICAN - Promulgated 15 Decrees: Founder of Dehonian Missionaries among those to be beatified; recognised also the martyrdom of 7 priests and a nun killed during the Spanish civil war and the heroic virtues of a Sister who spent 30 years caring for lepers and a 10 year old girl who offered her suffering for the Church’s missionary work .

Tuesday, 20 April 2004

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Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the presence of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, on 19 April in the Sala Clementina in the Vatican, Decrees regarding miracles, martyrdom and heroic virtues of 15 Servants of God were promulgated.
The decrees regard miracles attributed to the intercession of two Blesseds (Chilean Jesuit priest Blessed Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, and professed lay member of the order of Friars Minor Felice da Nicosia, Italian) and two servants of God both French and founders of religious orders: Rev. Pierre Vigne, Founder of the Congregation of Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament, and Jean of the Sacred Heart, born Léon Gustave Dehon, Founder of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart known as Dehonians.
Moreover the martyrdom of 7 priests and a nun killed during the Spanish civil war was recognised: Rev. José Tapies Sirvant and six companion priests of Urgel diocese (Spain) all parish priests or assistant priests killed in the civil war in 1936 out of hatred for the faith. In the same year and for the same reason Sister Maria de los Angeles Ginard Martí a member of the Congregation Sisters Zealous Eucharistic Adorers.
Also promulgated the decrees of the heroic virtues of 9 Servants of God, “who followed Christ with heroic fidelity, perseverance and generosity”. They are 4 priests and 4 women Religious (including Maria Anna Cope, known as Mother Marianna di Molokai who assisted lepers on the Island of Molokai for more than thirty years with exemplary Christian and a ten year old Spanish girl Maria Pilar Cimadevilla y López-Dóriga who reached heroism of Christian virtues and showed exceptional spiritual maturity in her short life and especially during the long illness which caused her death. She took part in the mission of the Church by offering her sufferings for the salvation of souls and the spreading of the Kingdom of God. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/4/2004; Righe 22; Parole 316)