2010-09-28 15:20:27

Petition seeks Blessed Vaz’s canonization


(Sept.28,2010) Some 1,000 people have petitioned the Vatican online, seeking the canonization of Blessed Joseph Vaz, a Goan priest who evangelized in Sri Lanka. A group of Goans working in the United States initiated the move to expedite the sainthood cause of the priest, ahead of his 300th death anniversary on Jan. 16 next year. Blessed Vaz, known as the “Apostle of Sri Lanka,” was beatified in 1995 by Pope John Paul II in Sri Lanka. The petitioners have signed an online memorandum addressed to Pope Benedict XVI through a website. The group has been championing the cause of Father Vaz since 1980.
Year-long special prayers are now underway in Goa to mark the priest’s death centenary. The petition says that if miracles attributed to the priest are deemed insufficient for canonization, Blessed Vaz could be canonized as a martyr due to the persecution he suffered. It urges consideration of “the uniqueness of the situation of persecution” he encountered. Blessed Vaz was born on April 21, 1651, at Benaulim in Goa, his mother’s village, and was ordained a priest in 1676. He travelled to Sri Lanka in 1686, disguised as a coolie during Dutch colonial occupation, when Calvinism was the official religion. He worked to revive and strengthen clandestine Catholic groups. Later in his mission, he found shelter in the Kandyan kingdom where he was able to work freely.
The online petition draws attention to the fact that Blessed Vaz re-founded the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, a non-European and non-Christian nation.










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