Three Religious Women Also Among New Saints
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 1, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- John Paul II today solemnly proclaimed the sanctity of 120 martyrs killed in China as well as three religious women, including a one-time heiress and a former slave.
Rain pelted the crowd of 70,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for the canonization of the China martyrs who died between 1648 and 1930, and the three women religious: Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia heiress who became an apostle of Indians and blacks in the United States; Giuseppina Bakhita, a one-time Sudanese slave; and Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus Sancho de Guerra of the Basque region of Spain.
The colorful liturgy followed included songs and prayers in Chinese and Arabic, as well as Latin Gregorian.
John Paul II began his homily by giving the examples of the martyrs who spilled their blood in China. "Isn't the Holy Year the most appropriate time to make their heroic witness shine?" the Holy Father asked.
The Pope mentioned the example of Anna Wang, a 14-year-old girl, who "resisted the executioner's threats" demanding that she apostatize and who, prepared for decapitation, "cried with a radiant face: 'The door of heaven is open to all,' and then whispered 'Jesus' three times."
Another Chinese martyr is Chi Zhuzi, 18, whose right arm had just been cut off. "As they prepared to flay him alive," John Paul said, "he cried, undaunted: 'Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will repeat to you that I am Christian.'"
Among these martyrs, 87 were Chinese and 33 foreign missionaries. The majority were killed during the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. The Boxers were members of a Chinese religious political party that declared war against Europeans and colonialism. As the missionaries were from the West, Christians became one of their favorite targets.
John Paul II said that the canonization of these people, among whom are several children, "is not the appropriate time to make judgments on those historical periods: This can and will be done at another time. With this solemn proclamation of sanctity, the Church today wishes only to recognize that those martyrs are an example of courage and coherence for us all, and they render honor to the noble Chinese people."
The canonization also became a special opportunity for the Holy Father to manifest the Church's preferential option for the poor, the abandoned and the unprotected.
As an example of dedication to ethnic minorities, the Pope pointed out American religious Katharine Drexel, 19th-century founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, which communicated the Gospel message and eucharistic life to African-Americans and native Indians.
"Katherine Drexel is an excellent example of that practical charity and generous solidarity with the less fortunate which has long been the distinguishing mark of American Catholics," the Holy Father said.
Giuseppina Bakhita was the Holy Father's model of sanctity and hope that only God can give to men living in captivity, under both old and new forms of slavery and, especially, to the Sudanese, where many people, like Bakhita, are reduced to slavery.
Christian love for the sick and abandoned was sublimely expressed in the person of Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus Sancho de Guerra, founder of the Servants of Jesus of Charity, who was also canonized. "In the life of the new saint, the first Basque woman to be canonized, the action of the Spirit is manifested in a singular way," the Pope said.
Despite the fact she was sick for "the last 12 years of her life, she did not spare any efforts or suffering, and she gave herself without reservations to the charitable service of the sick in the climate of a contemplative spirit," the Pontiff explained.
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