Pope approves 17 decrees for beatification and canonization

(March 15, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday approved decrees recognizing 3 miracles and 14 heroic virtues of holy persons who are being considered for beatification and sainthood. A miracle through the intercession of Italian Sr. Gertrude Comensoli, foundress of the Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament, has been approved for her sainthood, a date for which will be fixed later by the Pope. The Pope also recognized a miracle each attributed to the intercession of Italian priest Fr. Francesco Pianzola, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Queen of Peace, and Cuban Brother Giuseppe Olallo Valdés, of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God. Among those whose heroic virtues were recognized are a bishop, 7 priests, 2 nuns, 2 lay brothers and 2 lay women, from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and the United States. Notable among them is Italian priest Fr Clemente Vismara, the great missionary who served for 65 years in Myanmar, former Burma, where he is already venerated and invoked as the "Patriarch of Burma" and "Saint of Children". He became a priest for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) on May 26, 1923 and left for Myanmar on August 2 that year. He died there on June 15, 1988, at the age of 91. During this period he returned to his native Italy only once for a few months.