VATICAN - Beatification of Marianne Cope and Ascensión Nicol Goñi: “Our two Blessed opened their lives to the Spirit of God letting themselves be led by him to serve the Church, the poor, the sick and youth ”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the afternoon of Saturday 14 May Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided Mass at the Altar of the Chair in the apse of St Peter’s and, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, read out the Apostolic letter with which the Supreme Pontiff inscribed Ascensión Nicol Goñi (1868-1940) and Marianne Cope (1838-1918) in the register of the Blessed Servants of God.
“The Apostles experienced the Holy Spirit and became witnesses of Christ who died and is Risen, missionaries on the paths of the world- the Cardinal said in his homily referring to the solemnity of Pentecost -. The same experience is repeated in all who welcome Christ and open to God and to humanity … Our two Blessed opened their lives to the Spirit of God letting themselves be led by him to serve the Church, the poor, the sick and youth .”
The life of Blessed Marianne Cope “is a marvellous work of divine grace” the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints continued. After spending twenty years in the Congregation of the Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis of Syracuse, having become a woman of great experience and spiritual maturity, “she heard the voice of Christ in a call from the Bishop of Honolulu who was looking for women religious to care for people with leprosy on the island of Molokai”. Marianne did not hesitate, she left everything and entrusted herself to God’s will. For thirty five years she loved the sick more than herself: “she put herself at their service, she educated them, she guided them with wisdom, love and firmness. Like the good Samaritan she was a mother to them”.
Blessed Ascensión Nicol Goñi “was one of the great missionaries of the last century” said Cardinal Saraiva Martins. “With youthful enthusiasm and complete trust in Providence, she left her homeland and dedicated herself to the task of evangelisation, extending her zeal to the entire world, beginning with the American continent. Her generous, far-reaching and effective work left a profound impression in the missionary history of the Church.”. Her missionary life was studded with sacrifice, renunciation and apostolic fruits. She undertook various missionary journeys in Peru and in Europe, reaching even China. Intrepid and tireless, rooted in love of Christ, “she exercised towards everyone her charisma of spiritual motherhood”.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins closed his homily saying: “Our two Blessed carried in the world the fruits and the signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit, they spoke the language of truth and love, the only tongue which can break down barriers of culture and race and rebuild the unity of the human family, dispersed by pride, thirst for power, rejection of the God’s sovereignty … When he initiated his ministry as Successor of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI said “it is not power which redeems but love! This is the sign of God: He is love… God, who became the lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One not by those who crucify”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/5/2005, righe 34, parole 498)