DICASTERY FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS

Conference
“HOLINESS TODAY”

A Conference, “Holiness Today”, was held in Rome, October 3-6, 2022, at the Augustinianum Patristic Institute, organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
It has been a very interesting conference with qualified speakers. Most of the participants were members of the Dicastery, consultors and postulators and those enrolled in the Course of Higher Formation in Causes of Saints. All the interventions can be viewed on the web page www.causesanti.va.
In his final speech, Card. Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery, made a very vivid reflection that I want to share:
… “I have thought that holiness is like an underground river that although it always feeds the Church, in some places – and those are the lives of canonized saints – it flows out and gushes like a fountain. Most of the time, of course, there needs to be someone available to dig the well … and this is, somehow, the work of our Dicastery: from the beginning in the particular Churches up to the work of the Postulators, the various Consultors, the Cardinals and Bishops in the Ordinary of the Dicastery, up to the decision of the Successor of Peter. Dig the well from which the underground, hidden water flows! Fr. M. Faggioni said yesterday that if someone had not discovered the Manuscripts by Therese of the Child Jesus, we would not have had the saint we know
…I am thinking, then, about Lourdes, a girl later canonized: St. Bernadette Soubirous. In her stories she said that the Virgin had shown her a fountain where she could drink, but … she did not see it! The Virgin, however, insisted, and so Bernadette went started digging in the muddy earth that was at the bottom of the Grotto and discovered a spring!
There, beloved: I would like to say that in the processes for beatification and canonization, we too must do a little like Bernadette: dig so that from the soil of the Church come out those testimonies that will then lead to a beatification, to a canonization”.
Participating as Postulator, gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas, to make known what we are doing with the Association for Postulation of the Cause for the Unborn Children Martyrs, to put in the hands of Cardinals, Bishops and theologians the booklet “The Martyrdom of Unborn Children”. From the dense and profound words of Card. Semeraro I received a message that must spur us to dig in… We must pray that the holiness of unborn children come to light, their martyrdom is that saving spring water that flows from the side of Christ to whom they are mystically united. A living but hidden water, of which we are in urgently need.
A great sign for me was the final audience we had with Pope Francis in the Clementine Hall where I received his blessing, I was able to speak to him and I also put the booklet in his hands. We pray that the Holy Spirit with his light will enlighten the minds and the hearts of those who have the responsibility and ministry for the recognition of holiness in the Church.
Giovanni Antonucci