Pope Francis recently proclaimed his favorite Jesuit, Peter Favre, a saint, short-circuiting the typical“first recruit,”
and he tutored the Jesuit founder in Greek while Ignatius schooled his
pupil in his signature “Spiritual Exercises.”
Francis also moved three others along the path to sainthood, including approving a miracle attributed to the intercession of Sister Maria Teresa Demjanovich, a native of Bayonne, N.J., who died in 1927; and advancing the causes of Spanish priest Emanuele Herranz Estables and Polish layman George Ciesielski.
Favre was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1872, but he was never
credited with the required miracle that would formally elevate him to
sainthood. Francis – the first Jesuit elected pope – waived that
requirement and, according to the Vatican, “enrolled him in the
catalogue of the Saints.”
It was the second time last year that Francis has dispensed with
tradition, as is his style. In declaring Pope John XXIII a saint earlier
this year – he'll be formally canonized with Pope John Paul II next
year – Francis waived the required second miracle for the pope who
convened the landmark Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Speaking to a consortium of Jesuit magazines last year, Francis
praised Favre’s “dialogue with all, even the most remote and even with
his opponents; his simple piety, a certain naivete perhaps, his being
available straightaway, his careful interior discernment, the fact that
he was a man capable of great and strong decisions but also capable of
being so gentle and loving.”
Link (here) to The Charlotte Observer
"One evil thought repelled, one angry humor sharply chastised, one base envy well warred down, one thorough Deo Gratias in a piece of ill-luck, may be really hundreds of leagues of progress , and each of them worth more than the whole world to us , as something which pleases God, and which God alone has enabled us to do."
ReplyDeleteFather Faber