Pope Benedict canonizes three new saints

(October 24, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI led a solemn Eucharistic Celebration in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square on Sunday during which he raised to the glory of the altar three new saints for the Catholic Church. Marking also the Catholic Church’s 85^th Mission Sunday, the Pope in his homily offered the new saints, Archbishop Guido Maria Conforti of Italy, Father Luigi Guanella also of Italy and Sister Bonifacia Rodriguez y Castro of Spain, as models of holy life devoted to charity. Drawing upon Sunday’s Gospel in which Christ tells an enquiring Pharisee that “you shall love your neighbour as yourself,” the Pope said that “the visible sign that the Christian can show the world to witness to the love of God is the love of their brethren.” He said the Church today points to these three new saints who allowed themselves to be transformed by divine love, which marked their entire existence. ” St. Bonifacia who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and created the "Nazareth workshop" to help poor or unemployed women, died in 1905. St. Conforti founded the Society of St. Francis Xavier for Foreign Missions, also known as the Xaverian missionaries, for the evangelization of non-Christians. He served as bishop of Ravenna and later of Parma. He died in 1931. St. Guanella who dedicated his life to the care of the poor and needy, founded the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence in 1881 and Servants of Charity in 1908.
Towards the end of the canonization Mass a minor disruption occurred when a Romanian man climbed onto the colonnades in St. Peter’s Square and proceeded to burn a Bible. Aides managed to talk the man out of further disruption and the Mass proceeded normally with the Pope unfazed by the incident.
Before the conclusion of the Mass, during the midday ‘Angelus’ prayer, Pope Benedict greeted and encouraged the members of the institutions founded by the three new saints. He urged all to pray to the Virgin for the success of the inter-religious peace meeting he has convoked in Assisi on Thursday. “We entrust the Day of reflection dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world to her intercession: a pilgrimage to Assisi, 25 years since that convened by Blessed John Paul II,” the Pope said.