VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2001 (Zenit.org) - Juan Diego, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer and Padre Pio will soon be canonized saints, following John Paul II´s approval today of three decrees recognizing miracles attributed to the blessed.

Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presented to the Pope the ecclesiastical investigations that came to this conclusion. The Holy Father must now decide the dates for their canonization.

The cardinal presented Blessed Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-1975), founder of the Opus Dei, as an "eminent figure of the Church of the 20th century. With tireless fervor he promoted lay sanctity and with many initiatives took the leaven of the Gospel to the society of our time."

The cardinal then referred to Pio da Pietrelcina (1887-1968), "spiritual son of St. Francis of Assisi," and "humble Capuchin friar who amazed the world with his life dedicated to prayer and to listening to his brothers," adding that his "body marked by the stigmata, showed the intimate connection between death and resurrection that characterizes the paschal mystery."

The prefect then mentioned Blessed Juan Diego, a "Mexican Indian of the 16th century, husband and father of a family. His fame is linked to the Virgin of Guadalupe, who appeared to him in 1531. The unexpected meeting with the Mother of God empowered his journey of faith, which began in adult life, and led him to leave his home and dedicate himself to the custody of the first Guadalupe chapel."

The Pope also approved two additional decrees of miracles attributed to two blessed from Italy: Ignazio Da Santhia (1686-1770), Capuchin religious; and Benedetta Bambiagio Frassinello (1791-1858), founder of the Congregation of Benedictine Religious of Providence.

In addition, four decrees of the recognition of a miracle will lead to the beatification of the following:

--Ludovico Pavoni (1784-1849), Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sons of Mary Immaculate;

--Marco Antonio Durando, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of Sisters of Jesus the Nazarene (1801-1880);

--Luigi Variara, Italian priest who died in Cucuta, Colombia, and founded the Institute of the Sisters, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (1875-1923);

--Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception, Italian, founder of the Congregation of Religious Expiatory Victims of Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament (1856-Casoria).

Lastly, John Paul II approved four decrees of recognition of the heroic virtues of the following:

--Juan Nepomuceno Zegri Moreno, Spanish priest, founder of the Congregation of Religious of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy (1831-1905);

--Pedro Legaria Armendariz, Spanish priest and founder of the Congregation of the Handmaids of Christ the King (1878-1956);

--Bruno Marchesini, Italian clergyman (1915-1938);

--Maria Ludovica (baptized Antonina De Angelis), Italian-Argentine religious of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy (1880-1962).

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VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2001 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II today approved the canonical decree recognizing the miracle attributed to the intercession of Juan Diego, the Mexican Indian who witnessed the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.

The miracle, which occurred on May 6, 1990, at the very moment the Holy Father was proclaiming Juan Diego blessed, changed the life of drug addict Juan José Barragán Silva.

Barragán, then in his 20s, had been using marijuana for five years. That day, exasperated and under the drug´s influence, he stabbed himself with a knife in his mother´s presence, and went to a balcony to throw himself over.

His mother tried to hold him by the legs, but he managed to free himself and plunged head first to the ground. He then was rushed to the intensive care unit of Durango Hospital in Mexico City.

J.H. Hernández Illescas, regarded internationally as one of the best specialists in the field of neurology, and two other specialists, described the case as "unheard of, amazing, and inconceivable."

Other medical experts who were consulted could not explain the case, given the height of the balcony (10 meters), the youth´s weight (70 kilos, or 154 pounds), and the angle of impact (70 degrees).

Suddenly and inexplicably, three days after the fall, Barragán was completely cured. Subsequent examinations confirmed that he had no neurological or psychic effects, and the doctors concluded that his cure was "scientifically inexplicable."

Medical experts say the youth should have died in the fall, or at least been left seriously handicapped.

Esperanza, the youth´s mother, said that when her son was falling she entrusted him to God and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Invoking Juan Diego, she implored: "Give me a proof ... save this son of mine! And you, my Mother, listen to Juan Diego."

The miracle should be the decisive factor in the recognition of Juan Diego´s sanctity.

Cuauhtlatoatzin -- this was Juan Diego´s Indian name -- was born in 1474. He was converted to Christianity between 1524-25 and was baptized, together with his wife, by Franciscan missionary Friar Toribio de Benavente.

On Dec. 9, 1531, 10 years after the conquest of Tenochtitlan, today´s Mexico City, Juan Diego witnessed the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin on Tepeyac hill.

Our Lady spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native tongue, and used affectionate language, calling him "Juanito, Juan Dieguito" -- "the littlest of my children," "my little son."

According to tradition, there were five apparitions, the last being on Dec. 12. That day, as his uncle was seriously ill, Juan Diego went to find a priest. He went around the hill so the Blessed Virgin would not see him, but she came looking for him, and calmed him about his uncle´s illness: "I give you absolute certainty that he is already cured," she said.

Pointing to some flowers, and asking Juan Diego to gather them, the Virgin Mary continued: "My dearest little son, these different flowers are the proof, the sign that you will take to the bishop. On my behalf, tell him to please see in them my wish and, therefore, to do my will." The Virgin´s wish was the construction of a shrine in her name.

Once in Bishop Fray Juan de Zumárraga´s residence, Juan Diego showed him the roses he carried in his "ayate." As the flowers fell out, the image of Mary suddenly appeared on the fabric. Juan Diego´s "tilma" continues to be studied by scientists, who are unable to explain how the image was imprinted.

In the decade preceding the apparitions, Franciscans and missionaries converted 250,000 to 300,000 Indians in Mexico. After the apparitions, 8 million people were converted in just seven years.

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VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The case that prompted John Paul II to approve a decree on a miracle of Blessed Josemaría Escrivá involved the healing of a Spanish physician from an incurable disease.

Dr. Manuel Nevado Rey suffered from chronic radiodermatitis, a typical disease of physicians whose hands have been exposed to radiation from X-ray machines over a long period of time. It is a progressive disease that leads to skin cancers.

Radiodermatitis has no cure. The only known treatments are surgical -- skin grafts, and amputation of the affected parts of the hand. Until now, no case of a spontaneous cure from cancerous chronic radiodermatitis had been recorded.

Nevado, born in 1932, is a specialist in orthopedic surgery. For nearly 15 years he operated on fractures and other injuries, exposing his hands to X-rays. He carried out these operations very often, beginning in 1956.

The first symptoms of radiodermatitis began to appear in 1962, and the disease continued to worsen. By 1984 he had to limit his activities to minor operations because his hands were gravely affected. He stopped operating completely in the summer of 1992. Nevado did not undergo any treatment.

In November 1992, he met Luis Eugenio Bernardo, an agricultural engineer working for the Spanish government. On hearing about his disease, Bernardo offered him a prayer card of the founder of Opus Dei, who had been beatified on May 17 that year, and invited him to pray for a cure for his radiodermatitis.

Nevado began praying for a cure through the intercession of Blessed Josemaría. A few days later he traveled to Austria with his wife in order to attend a medical conference. They visited several churches, and came across prayer cards of Blessed Josemaría.

"This impressed me and it encouraged me to pray more for my cure," Nevado explained. From the day that he began to entrust his cure to the intercession of Blessed Josemaría, his hands began to get better, and in about a fortnight the lesions disappeared completely. The cure was complete, and beginning in January 1993, Nevado was able to return to carrying out surgical operations without any problem.

The canonical process on this miracle took place in the Archdiocese of Badajoz, where Nevado lives, and was concluded in 1994.

On July 10, 1997, the Medical Committee of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously established the following diagnosis: "a cancerous state of chronic radiodermatitis in its third and irreversible stage" -- and therefore with a certain prognosis of "infaust" (without hope of a cure).

The complete cure of the lesions, confirmed by the objective examinations carried out on the patient in 1992, 1994 and 1997, was declared by the medical committee to be "very rapid, complete, lasting and scientifically inexplicable."

On Jan. 9, 1998, the Committee of Theologians gave its unanimous approval for attributing the miracle to Blessed Josemaría. The cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints confirmed these conclusions last Sept. 21.

Josemaría Escrivá was born in Barbastro, Spain, on Jan. 9, 1902. He had five siblings: Carmen (1899-1957) and Santiago (1919-1994), plus three other younger sisters who died when they were small children. His parents, José and Dolores, gave their children a profound Christian education.

In 1915 Josemaría´s father´s business failed, so the family relocated to Logrono, where he found other work. It was in Logrono that Josemaría perceived his vocation for the first time.

After seeing the bare footprints left in the snow by a monk, he felt that God wanted something of him, even though he did not know exactly what it was. He thought that he would more easily discover it if he became a priest, so he began to prepare for the priesthood, first in Logrono and later in Saragossa.

His father died in 1924 and he was left as head of the family. Ordained in 1925, he began his ministry in a rural parish, and afterward in Saragossa. In 1927, with the permission of his bishop, Father Josemaría moved to Madrid to obtain his doctorate in law.

There, on Oct. 2, 1928, during a retreat, he saw what it was that God was asking of him: He founded Opus Dei. From that time on he began to work on the development of Opus Dei while he continued his priestly ministry, particularly to the poor and sick. In addition, he studied at the University of Madrid and gave classes to support his family.

When the civil war broke out in Madrid, religious persecution forced him to take refuge in several places. He exercised his priestly ministry clandestinely until he finally was able to leave the Spanish capital.

After a harrowing escape across the Pyrenees, he took up residence in Burgos. At the end of the war in 1939 he returned to Madrid where he finally obtained his doctorate in law. In the years that followed he gave many retreats to laity, priests and religious.

In 1946 Blessed Josemaría took up residence in Rome. There he obtained a doctorate in theology from the Lateran University and was named consultor to two Vatican congregations, as well as honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, and prelate of honor by Pope Pius XII.

From Rome he frequently went to various countries in Europe, and to Mexico in 1970, to spur the growth of Opus Dei in those places. In 1974 and 1975 he made two long trips to Central and South America, where he held gatherings with large groups of people.

Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church. Based in Rome, it has 80,000 members worldwide.

Monsignor Escrivá died in Rome on June 26, 1975. After his death, thousands of letters were sent to Rome asking the Pope to open his cause of beatification and canonization. Among them were letters from 69 cardinals and nearly 1,300 bishops -- more than a third of the world episcopate. Escriva´s cause was opened in 1981.

Many miracles have been attributed to Blessed Josemaría´s intercession, including some inexplicable medical cures.

In 1976 Carmelite Sister Concepcion Boullon Rubio was at the point of death when she was suddenly and completely cured of a rare disease called lipomatosis, after members of her family prayed to God for a cure through the intercession of Blessed Josemaría.

The miracle was unanimously approved for Monsignor Escrivá´s beatification by the Board of Physicians for the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, a meeting of the Theological Consultors, the Congregation for Bishops, and, finally, by John Paul II.

After an exhaustive examination of Monsignor Escrivá´s life and work -- a process lasting nearly 10 years -- the Pope beatified him on May 17, 1992, in St. Peter´s Square. The beatification of Monsignor Escrivá, along with that of Josephine Bakhita, drew 300,000 people.

In his homily, John Paul II told the faithful, "With supernatural intuition, Blessed Josemaría untiringly preached the universal call to holiness and apostolate. Christ calls everyone to become holy in the realities of everyday life. Hence work, too, is a means of personal holiness and apostolate, when it is done in union with Jesus Christ."

ZE01122003

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2001 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II today approved the canonical decree of recognition of a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Pio da Pietrelcina (1887-1968).

The miracle happened to Matteo Pio Colella, 7, son of a doctor who works in the House for Relief of Suffering, the hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo founded by the Capuchin friar.

On the night of June 20, 2000, Matteo Colella was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital with galloping meningitis. By the next morning, doctors had lost all hope for him. Additional surgery seemed pointless since nine of the boy´s vital organs had ceased to give signs of life.

Then, that night, during a prayer vigil attended by Matteo´s mother and some Capuchin friars of Padre Pio´s monastery, the child´s condition improved suddenly, startling the doctors.

When he awoke from the coma, Matteo said that he had seen an elderly man with a white beard and a long, brown habit, who said to him: "Don´t worry, you will soon be cured."

Francesco Forgione (Padre Pio´s baptismal name) was born in Pietrelcina, Italy, on May 25, 1887. He took his perpetual vows as a Capuchin friar in 1907, and was ordained a priest in 1910. In 1918, he received the stigmata of Christ´s passion. He died at 81, on Sept. 23, 1968.

John Paul II beatified the Capuchin on May 2, 1999. The Pope will decide on the canonization date.

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