Canonization of Josemaria Escriva (1902-1975)
Founder of Opus Dei
October 6th 2002, St. Peter’s Square Press Release “Dear brothers and sisters! Continue on with your mission enthusiastically and faithfully, following in the footsteps of your Founder. Show with your daily efforts that the love of Christ can indeed inform the whole gamut of human existence”.
-Pope John Paul II, Address, January 12, 2002
More than 300,000 people are expected to fill St. Peter’s Square October 6th 2002 at 10:00 a.m. for the canonization of Josemaria Escriva, which will be presided by Pope John Paul II. A delegation of about 750 Canadians from across the country are planning to attend. Bishops from Canada include Most Rev. Paul-André Durocher, of Alexandria-Cornwall, and Most Rev. Richard Grecco, Auxiliary bishop of Toronto.
“I couldn’t go to the beatification of Blessed Josemaria in 1992 because I was being born on that day, May 17th”, said ten-year old Sarah Rebello of Toronto, who is now going to Rome with her parents and nearly all her 11 brothers and sisters.
The Vicar of Opus Dei in Canada, Msgr. Frederick Dolan, said recently that “these are fascinating times: John Paul II is calling us to have a sense of “urgency of heroicity”. To this end, being well formed in our faith “is the first step to being liberated from mediocrity.”
Some of the young people headed to Rome have spent the last few months fundraising in order to be able to make the trip. At Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto a fundraising concert was presented by the students. In Ottawa a group of girls connected with Valrideau University Residence got together to wash cars. While one team did the cleaning, another provided the drivers with background about the future saint. They also went to different parishes in the city where they told parishioners about their hopes to go to Rome and got a generous response from the raffle tickets they sold. Lucille Gaudette is an elderly woman in Quebec City who had hoped to go to Rome but became too weak to make the trip due to her battle with cancer. Instead she decided to participate in the canonization by donating her savings to younger pilgrims. Each pilgrim will be receiving a "pilgrim's kit", with the necessary maps of Rome, a missal to follow the Mass, a biography of the Founder which includes Gospel commentaries by Josemaria to help pilgrims pray "in the middle of the street", and a new prayer card of the saint.
On September 21st at the University of Ottawa a symposium will help to prepare for the canonization: “The Christian Challenge of Daily Life: the Teaching of a New Saint, Josemaria Escriva”. Speakers include Ottawa University law professor Ernest Caparros, along with American writer Dennis Helming and others.
From October 5th to the 8th some 10 thousand pilgrims will be staying at the port of Civitavecchia, not far from Rome where they will be sleeping in cruise ships coming from Barcelona, Malaga, Marseille, Valencia and Palerrmo. One of the docks in the port will be dedicated to Saint Josemaria Escriva.On October 8th and 9th Masses of Thanksgiving will be celebrated in different basilicas and churches of Rome in more than 15 languages. Cardinal Francis Arinze will preside the celebration for English-speaking pilgrims in the 4th Century Basilica of St. Mary Major. A group of girls from Hawthorn School in Toronto will be singing in the choir. On October 10th the remains of the new saint will be transferred in a solemn procession from the Basilica of St. Eugene to the Prelatic Church of Our Lady of Peace, located on Viale Bruno Buozzi.
For more information contact: Fr. Eric Nicolai at (514) 842-1621.
The Prelature's website: www.opusdei.ca
A search engine of Escriva’s works can be found at www.escrivaworks.org.
For information about the activities in Rome see www.escriva-canonization.org.
For information about the symposium in Ottawa contact parkhillresidence@rogers.com or call 613-565-0762.
A more detailed biography can be found at www.vatican.va in the section on the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.