St. Columba Catholic Church

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s intercession on Monday, paving the way for his canonization as a saint during the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Youth next summer.

Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches “to the heights.”

The young man from the northern Italian city of Turin was an avid mountaineer and third order Dominican known for his charitable outreach.

Frassati’s canonization will occur during the Jubilee of Youth in Rome on Aug. 3, 2025.

The miracle

In a decree on Nov. 25, Pope Francis recognized the miraculous healing of a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — who was recently ordained a priest in June 2023.

Monsignor Robert Sarno, a former official of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints who served as the archiepiscopal delegate in the diocesan process in Los Angeles that examined the healing, told CNA that the seminarian had damaged his Achilles tendon in a basketball accident while playing with other seminarians. 

After the MRI showed significant damage to his Achilles tendon, his doctor recommended that he see an orthopedic surgeon.

“Being very upset about the whole thing, he started a novena to Pier Giorgio Frassati on Nov. 1,” Sarno explained. 

Midway through the novena, “he was in the chapel crying during his novena and he felt this tremendous warmth in his ankle.” 

"And then when he went to the orthopedic surgeon a week later, the orthopedic surgeon, after seeing the MRI and conducting physical investigations, said to him, 'You must have someone in heaven who likes you'"

The seminarian was able to immediately resume playing the sports that he loved without any difficulties. The healing was verified by a diocesan inquiry and the examination of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints’ medical board, theologians, and the cardinals and bishops.

Sarno noted that it is fitting that a young man playing basketball received the healing given that Frassati was known for his love of sport and outdoor activities.

“To the heights” of holiness

Born on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901, Frassati was the son of the founder and director of the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

At the age of 17, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to taking care of the poor, the homeless, and the sick, as well as demobilized servicemen returning from World War I.

Frassati was also involved in the Apostleship of Prayer and Catholic Action. He obtained permission to receive daily Communion.

On a photograph of what would be his last climb, Frassati wrote the phrase, “Verso L’Alto,” which means “to the heights.” This phrase has become a motto for Catholics inspired by Frassati to strive for the summit of eternal life with Christ.

Frassati died of polio on July 4, 1925. His doctors later speculated that the young man had caught polio while serving the sick.

John Paul II, who beatified Frassati in 1990, called him a “man of the eight beatitudes,” describing him as “entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor.”

Pope Francis praised Frassati for sharing the love of Jesus with the poor in a speech on June 24.

“I am reminded of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati — soon to be a saint — who in Turin used to go into the homes of the poor to bring help,” the pope said.

“Pier Giorgio was from a wealthy, upper-middle class family, but he did not grow up ‘wrapped in cotton wool,’ he did not lose himself in the ‘good life,’ because within him there was the lifeblood of the Holy Spirit, there was love for Jesus and for his brothers,” he added.

Other soon-to-be saints announced

In addition to Frassati, Pope Francis also recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Maria Troncatti (1883-1969), an Italian religious sister from the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who served as a missionary among indigenous peoples in Ecuador.

The pope also approved the martyrdoms of Vietnamese Servant of God Francis Xavier Tru'o'ng Bǚu Diệp (1897-1946) and Congolese Servant of God Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi (1981-2007), making possible their beatifications.

Father Francis Xavier was a Vietnamese priest who defended the rights of local citizens against plunder by armed gangs at the end of the Second World War. On March 12, 1946, he was taken prisoner by a group of militiamen together with others and locked up in a rice warehouse, where he was interrogated. 

A few days later, his disfigured body was found in a ditch. Following his death, Christians began to visit his tomb, asking for his intercession and obtaining graces, according to the Vatican.

Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi was a Congolese layman, lawyer, and member of the Saint Egidio Community. He worked as a commissioner for a customs office controlling food supplies entering the country, a role in which he opposed several attempted acts of corruption. For this, he was kidnapped, tortured, and killed in July 2007. The Vatican recognized his martyrdom in “odium fidei” because his killing was motivated by the fact that “he was a man of faith, animated by a strong sense of justice and a concrete love for his neighbor.”

In the decree, Pope Francis authorized the beatification of Venerable Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534), the abbess of the Convent of “Santa Maria della Croce” in Cubas de Madrid, without the usually required miracle due to the recognition of the longstanding “cult,” or devotion that has spread and continued for centuries. 

The pope also recognized the heroic virtue of Croatian Bishop Josip Lang (1857-1924) who was known for his service to the poor and formation of seminarians.

CNA Deutsch, Nov 25, 2024 / 12:01 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Berlin celebrated the reopening of St. Hedwig's Cathedral on Sunday after more than six years of renovation work. The interior has been given a state-of-the-art makeover, but not everyone is responding with enthusiasm. 

In his homily on Sunday, Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch summarized the intention behind the new design: “In the current renovation of St. Hedwig's Cathedral according to the designs of architect Peter Sichau and artist Leo Zogmayer, it was important to us that Catholics find a home here in this church and that people who do not share our faith also feel addressed by the language of the architecture and the artistic design and can perceive this church as a place of reflection, conversation, and open searching.”

Ulrich L. Lehner, the Warren Foundation Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, in a post on X shared his response to the design of the cathedral writing: "This is what 40 million get you for your new Cathedral when you are a #Catholic Bishop in Germany: an eggshell altar. Dedicated to the 'supreme being"? The building is a visible sign for the dead #German #church - it is a shell without any life inside. Nobody will pray here.”

Koch spoke to the hopes and disappointments people may have when they see the renovations, saying in his sermon that “the design of St. Hedwig's Cathedral addresses the dark experiences of many people.”

“For example, in the crypt in the Neapolitan nativity scene, the depiction of the birth of Christ includes the poverty and the drama of the flight of so many people,” he said. “On the Way of the Cross in the crypt, which takes up the suffering of many people, is the chapel in which the guilt of the church over the course of its 2,000-year history and the suffering it has caused find expression. In addition, our recent history in Germany is taken up, in which we failed and did not sufficiently address the violation of human dignity.”

The archbishop continued: “As Christians, we believe in the good God, who holds our lives and our history and the future of the world in his hands and who has given us salvation in Jesus Christ. We believe in God, who leads people’s lives to fulfillment, who has torn open the heavens and gives us a healthy, meaningful and fulfilling future that allows us to live together and leads our lives to unfold.”

Against this background, the crypt, he said, “does not stop at people's dark experiences, but shows itself to be a place of hope. The tomb of Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg and the tombs of the bishops bear witness to the hope of resurrection that fills us.”

The redesigned interior of the Berlin cathedral takes up the “confession of Christ, the Savior, the fulfillment and completion of our lives and our future”, explained Koch. 

“The center of the cathedral is the altar as a symbol of Christ, of his life, suffering, death and resurrection. The church gathers around it and honors him in the liturgy. The community of believers gathers around it with the bishop, whose cathedra is inserted into this circle of believers around the altar as a sign of his task and his authority to lead and teach his diocese. Saint Hedwig thus becomes an expression of the idea of communion, which we have placed at the center of our life in the Archdiocese of Berlin and to which we are committed in the development of the synodality of our Church: communion with God and with one another.”

During his time as Cardinal and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI categorized such a design of the interior of churches with the words: “The turning of the priest towards the people now forms the congregation into a self-contained circle. In terms of form, it is no longer open towards the front and above, but is closed in on itself.”

Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, in contrast, said he is delighted with the new interior of St. Hedwig's Cathedral.“When I entered the room, I was completely overwhelmed. I was speechless at the brightness, the size, and the freedom that this space breathes. It is actually unrecognizable when you compare it to the room I remembered.”

Woelki was Archbishop of Berlin from 2011 to 2014.

“The Pantheon was brought to Berlin from Rome,” Woelki said on Sunday in an interview with Cologne Cathedral Radio. “The altar is at the very center. Christ is at the center, next to it the cross, the ambo, from there the proclamation of the Word and overall simplicity. The space gives freedom, but at the same time it also creates a closeness to one another. People now sit much closer and kneel much closer to the salvation that takes place on the altar.”

St. Hedwig's Cathedral dates back to the 18th century. The building burned down during the Second World War. When it was rebuilt, it was already a very modern church. A few decades later, it was re-redesigned, initiated by Woelki.

This article was originally published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German language news partner, and has been translated and adapted for CNA.

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