Fr. Peyton Canonization Cause to Open Thursday

From the Baltimore Archdiocese site:

Opening Session in Cause for Sainthood of Father Patrick Peyton to Take Place in Baltimore
Fr. Peyton coined the phrase, “The family that prays together stays together.”

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore, will preside over the opening session of the Cause for Sainthood of Father Patrick Peyton, CSC during the 12:10 Mass at the Baltimore Basilica on Thursday, November 20. Father Peyton is best known as the “Rosary Priest,” who encouraged families through his radio and television programs in the 1940s and 50s to pray together daily, especially the rosary.

The investigation into the Cause for Sainthood of Father Peyton, which opened in June of 2001, was moved from the Diocese of Fall River, MA to Baltimore by the Holy See. Members of the ecclesiastical tribunal, which will investigate the life and ministry of Father Peyton, will be sworn-in during the Mass on Thursday and will receive instruction from the Archbishop as to how the inquiry is to take place.

The Catholic Church’s process leading to canonization involves three major steps. First is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the church gives him or her the title Venerable. Second is beatification, after which he or she is called Blessed. The third step is canonization, or declaration of sainthood.

At various steps in the canonization process, evidence of alleged miracles is presented to Church authorities. In general, two miracles need to be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has previously been involved in the Causes of Canonization of the Servants of God, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, and Father Francis Xavier Selos.

Father Patrick Peyton emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1928 when he was 19. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1941 and founded Family Rosary in Albany, New York the following year. He conducted rosary crusades in 40 countries, drawing 28 million people. In 1947, he created Family Theater Productions, producing some 600 radio and television programs featuring hundreds of actors and celebrities, and more than 10,000 broadcasts.

Family Theater Productions is now part of Holy Cross Family Ministries, which carries on the work of Father Petyon and is headquartered in North Easton, MA. For more information about the life and work of Father Peyton, visit www.hcfm.org.

Rabbi Opposes Pius XII's Beautification

Richard Owen of the Times reports from Rome:

The first Jewish rabbi to attend a Synod of Roman Catholic bishops in Rome has used the occasion to to oppose plans to put Pope Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff, on the road to sainthood by beatifying him.

Contradicting recent statements by Pope Benedict XVI, Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, said Pius XII's "silence on the Holocaust" could not be forgotten or forgiven. He added: "He should not be seen as a model and he should not be beatified, because he did not raise his voice against the Holocaust. He did not speak, either because he was afraid or for other personal reasons".

He added: "He may have helped in secrecy many of the victims and many of the refugees, but the question is - could he have raised his voice, and would it have helped or not? We, as the victims, feel the answer is yes, and I am not empowered by the families of the millions of those who died to say we forget, we forgive."

However Rabbi Cohen made his remarks to journalists at the Vatican in the margins of the three week Synod, and did not refer to Pius XII in his formal address. Instead he spoke on the meaning of the Torah for Jews, and said his presence was a "signal of hope for generations to come " after a history of "blood and tears" between Christians and Jews.

The beatification cause for Pius XII was opened in 1967, but has been opposed by critics of the Pope's behaviour towards Nazi Germany not only as pontiff but previously as Secretary of State and as papal nuncio (ambassador) to Berlin. Last month (September) Pope Benedict, who is to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Pius XII's death on Thursday, insisted that Pius had "spared no effort" to save Jews from Nazi and Fascist extermination. Complete Story


Personally, what I've heard of Pius XII's involvement in WWII has left me conflicted. We don't really know what went on behind the scenes, but my hope is that the Church acted in a manner consistent with being the Church of Christ.

No matter what happened then, sainthood is always a thing of heaven, not earth. Yes, the nominations can be seen as a thing of man, but the miracles are definitely determined by God. If God wants someone recognized as a saint, the miracles will occur. If not, they won't.

Happy Feast Day, Little Flower

I was going to have a post with lots of pictures to celebrate this the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux. In fact, I began it last night and was going to finish it this morning.

I've decided to instead let the above picture speak of and for her.

Happy Feast Day!

Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo

Author, Bishop, Doctor of the Church, Philosopher, Theologian

Of his conversion, St. Augustine "confessed" to God:

Suddenly I found it delightful to be without those trivial pleasures that I had feared to lose and was now glad to reject.

My mind was at last free from the gnawing cares of ambition, of the hunger for gain; free to stop wallowing in self-indulgence and picking at the scab of lust. I was now talking freely to you, Lord God, my light, my wealth and my salvation.

Happy Birthday, Mother!

On this day in 1910, Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu's youngest child was born.

Named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the world would come to know their daughter as Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

In celebration of her life, members of many faiths came together at Mother Teresa's tomb to pray for world peace and specifically the victims of the July Mumbai terrorist attack which killed 42 and injured roughly 150 people.

Fr. Damien and the Miraculous Cure

AOL is featuring a nice piece on the miracle recently accepted by the Church as the final one needed to canonize Fr. Damien of Molokai. Here is a large portion of the article:

AIEA, Hawaii (Aug 9.) - When cancer spread into her lungs, doctors told Audrey Toguchi she had six months to live, at best, and suggested chemotherapy as the only option.

Toguchi, however, turned to another source -- a Catholic missionary who died more than a century ago.

"I'm going to Molokai to pray to Father Damien," Toguchi calmly told Dr. Walter Y.M. Chang after hearing her death sentence.

"Mrs. Toguchi, prayers are nice and it's probably very helpful, but you still need chemotherapy," replied Chang, who earlier had removed a fist-size tumor from Toguchi's left buttock that was the source of the cancer in her lungs.

Defying Chang and the pleas of her husband and two sons, Toguchi caught a flight from Honolulu to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai to pray at the grave of the priest who had ministered to people with leprosy until he, too, caught it and died in 1889.

"Dear Lord, you're the one who created my body, so I know you can fix it," Toguchi prayed. "I put my whole faith in you. ... Father Damien, please pray for me, too, because I need your help."

On a doctor's visit on Oct. 2, 1998, a month after cancer was first detected in her lungs, doctors expected the tumors to have grown. Instead, they had shrunk, and by May 1999 tests confirmed that they had disappeared without treatment.

Chang and a half-dozen other doctors, including a cardiologist, oncologist, pathologist and radiologist, couldn't explain it. Chang, who does not belong to any religion, urged Toguchi to report it to the Catholic church.

Damien, born Joseph de Veuster, arrived in the islands in 1864. Nine years later he began ministering to leprosy patients on Molokai, where some thousands had been banished amid an epidemic in Hawaii in the 1850s. After contracting the disease, also known as Hansen's disease, he died on April 15, 1889, at 49.

His life and work have inspired many, from Mother Teresa, who lobbied for Damien's sainthood, to Mahatma Gandhi.

Toguchi returned to Damien's grave after the cancer disappeared. This time, she took her husband, Yukio, who comes from a Buddhist family and attended Methodist church growing up on the sugar plantations of Maui.

"I'm not the praying type but I just wanted to say 'Thank you,'" he said. Every day is a blessing to him now, he said.

Audrey Toguchi still prays often to Damien, asking him to help others. Complete story.

Soon to be ackowledged/canonized St. Damien of Molokai, pray for us.

Something that bears mentioning that I have mentioned here before -
There is a wonderful documentary, "The Father Damien Story - An Uncommon Kindness," which was narrated by Robin Williams available through Amazon.com (and I'm sure other outlets). It is so well done that my documentary despising husband even enjoyed it. We first saw it as a rental from Netflix.com.