Posted on 02/10/2006 7:22:47 AM PST by Wiz
Rome, 10 Feb. (AKI) - Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the head of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), announced on Friday that Andrea Santoro, an Italian priest murdered in Turkey this week, should be made a saint. Addressing hundreds of mourners at Santoro's funeral in Rome's Saint John in Lateran basilica, Ruini in his homily said that all the Catholic Church's procedures for canonisation would be respected, though he was already convinced the priest was a martyr.
"We will fully respect the laws and timeframes of the Church in the process of beatification and canonisation that I have in mind to open," the country's most senior cardinal said. "But it is now my heartfelt conviction that Don Andrea's sacrifice has all the elements required to make him a Christian martyr," Ruini added to a long applause from the congregation.
(Excerpt) Read more at adnki.com ...
There seems no question that Father Santoro is a martyr. Whether he's a saint would have to be investigated, of course.
A martyr can be beatified without a miracle, if it's determined that his life was one of "heroic virtue." A miracle is still needed for him to be canonized.
bttt
Here is a snip of what happened to the Orthodox Christian Metropolitan of Smyrna, +Chrysostomos at the hands of the savage Turks:
"In an unprotected Smyrna, Metropolitan Chrysostomos remained with his flock. "It is the tradition of the Greek Church and the duty of the priest to stay with his congregation," Chrysostomos replied to those begging him to flee. According to eyewitness testimony presented at the Academy of Athens and as narrated in "Smyrna 1992," the mob fell upon Chrysostomos. They (the Turks) uprooted his eyes and, while he was bleeding, dragged him by his beard through the streets of the Turkish quarter. He was beaten and kicked, and pieces of his skin cut off. All the while, Chrysostomos, his pace face covered with blood, had his face turned upwards, continuously praying "Holy Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Every now and then, when he had the strength to do so, he would raise his right hand and blessed his persecutors. A Turk realized what Chrysostomos was doing and got so furious that he cut off the Metropolitan's hand with his sword. Metropolitan Chrysostomos fell to the ground, and was hacked to pieces by the angry mob."
This is the sort of fate they forsee for all of us.
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