MADRID PREPARES FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF THE CHEMIST GUADALUPE ORTIZ DE LANDÁZURI
-Eleven thousand people from more than 60 countries will participate in the event on Saturday, 18 May
-A digital and ‘delocalized’ beatification will be live-streamed, with ways to participate through an app, multimedia and geocaching tour
-Participants are invited to support Harambee Scholarship Project for African women scientists
Madrid. On Saturday, May 18th, the Church will have a new Blessed, the Spanish chemist and researcher Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri (1916-1975), a member of Opus Dei who will be beatified in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Becciu, prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of the Saints, and which will be held at the Vistalegre Arena at 11 am.
Together with Cardinal Becciu, the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, and the Prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, will concelebrate together with various cardinals, bishops and priests.
After reading a message from Pope Francis and the solemn formula of beatification, the image of the new blessed will be unveiled and her relics brought to the altar to be venerated.
On Sunday, May 19th, a Mass of Thanksgiving will be celebrated in the same place, presided over by Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, who will also have an encounter with the people who have traveled to Madrid for this event over the weekend.
Over 60 countries
The Vistalegre Arena will be filled with registered pilgrims, of whom three thousand come from more than 60 countries, above all Mexico, where the new blessed worked for six years and obtained citizenship. Many others will follow the ceremony on television and live-streaming from the Opus Dei website.
Associations, parishes and schools will follow the ceremony from other places enabled with screens. The beatification will also be broadcast by international channels such as EWTN (Latin America and the United States), MA Visión and ESNE TV (Mexico), the Peruvian JN19, Laudato TV (Croatia) and Telepace (Italy). Further details on the live streaming is also available at: https://opusdei.org/en/article/streaming-beatification-guadalupe-ortiz-de-landazuri/
Pilgrims can pray in front of the tomb of Guadalupe in the Royal Oratory of the Knight of Grace (Gran Vía, 17), and visit the exhibition "Guadalupe. Live the Experience", inaugurated last night at the Tajamar School in Madrid and will be open until May 30.
Harambee Scholarships
The organizing committee of the beatification is inviting pilgrims to donate to a project offering one hundred scholarships for African women scientists, which will be managed by the NGO Harambee Africa International.
From the beginning, the committee also considered ways that people could participate in the beatification without traveling to Madrid, through the website www.guadalupeortizdelandazuri.org, with resources to know her life and the program of events, as well as information about her Cause and the miraculous healing attributed to her intercession.
Beatification App
Available in Spanish and English in Google Play and App Store, the app tries to recreate the experience of traveling and attending a beatification. Features include a virtual tour of significant places in Madrid related to Guadalupe’s life, a travel journal, bibliographic and audiovisual material – including the e-book Letters to a Saint and the “Guadalupe” multimedia report – as well as access to the live-streaming of the beatification event. Pilgrims using the app can follow the program of events, find useful information, follow the texts of the ceremonies, and even donate to the "Guadalupe Scholarship Project".
First lay person of Opus Dei to be beatified
The new blessed was born in Madrid on December 12, 1916. She studied chemistry, and was one of few women to purse scientific studies at that time in Spain (1933). In Madrid, she dedicated herself to teaching and research, eventually completing a doctorate, all the while carrying out an intense professional and evangelizing activity. In other stages of her life, she lived in Mexico and Rome.
Guadalupe Ortiz is the first lay person of Opus Dei to be beatified and collaborated directly with Opus Dei’s founder, Saint Josemaria. "Her contagious cheerfulness, her fortitude in the face of adversity, her Christian optimism in difficult circumstances, and her self-giving to others,” are some of the characteristics mentioned by the decree promulgated by the Congregation of the Causes of Saints. The text of the decree also reflects how Guadalupe lived the virtues to a heroic degree, and "surrendered herself completely and joyfully to God and to the service of his Church, and intensely experienced divine love."