Conocer el Opus Dei - Angelo Card. Felici - Edward Nowak, Prefecto y Secretario de la Congregación de las Causas de los Santos, 13-22.5.92 (edición diaria y suplementos semanales)

Artículos de la prensa internacional en los años que rodean a la beatificación de Josemaría Escrivá por Juan Pablo II

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Angelo Card. Felici - Edward Nowak, Prefecto y Secretario de la Congregación de las Causas de los Santos, 13-22.5.92 (edición diaria y suplementos semanales)

Texto

2 Weekly Edition

L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO

N. 20 - 20 May 1992

STATEMENT OF CARDINAL FELICI AND ARCHBISHOP NOWAK

Città del Vaticano

Procedures carefully followed

The following statement was released

on Tuesday, 12 May, by.Cardinal Angelo Felici, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and Archbishop Edward Nowak, Secretary of the same, concerning the beatification on 17 May of Mons. Josemarla Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei. The statement was released in Italian.

As everyone knows, on 17 May a ceremony has been scheduled for the beatification of the Venerable Servant of God Josemarla Escrivá de Balaguer. The announcement has brought great joy not only to the members of Opus Dei, which the Servant of God founded, but to all who have come to know his spirituality and work.

Nevertheless, opposition has been expressed and this was foreseeable, given the spread of Opus Dei's members and of the work they do in service to the Church. There were also some insinuations about the procedure followed in this specific case by the Congregation for the Causes of Saiflts. These insinuations are completelý groundless, as a precise knowledge of the cause's iter shows; one which we will now give.

1. The introductory phase

of the cause

After the Servant of God's death in Rome on 26 June 1975, the reputation for sanctity which he enjoyed while living became increasingly widespread. Over the next five years the postulation was able to collect, in two volumes of 428 and 390 pages, many testimonies about the basis and extent of this reputation. The same postulation published another volume with a report, signed by those concerned, of 1,500 favours attributed to the intercession of Mons. Escrivá (cur

rently the written reports of the favours and graces received have reached 70,000). In addition, approximately 6,000 postulatory letters were sent to the Holy Father, written by, among others, 69 Cardinals, 1,228 Bishops and 41 General Superiors of religious orders and congregations, as well as by many heads of state and government, some of whom knew the Servant of God personally or, at least fulfilled the conditions given in the Instruction issued by the Congregation of Rites on 15 January 1935.

The Motu proprio Sanctitas clan/or, in force from 1969 to 1983, laid down - as is also provided for in the current norms - that, in order to verify the persistence and firmness of the reputation for holiness, a cause could only be introduced five years after the Servant of God's death. Mons. Escrivá's cause began on 19 February 1981, thus in accordance with the law, after receiving the prior n/h/I obstat of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which was confirmed by the Holy Father.

11. The instructional, phase

Beginning in May of 1981 and continuing for six and a half years, two simultaneous processes regarding the life and virtues of the Servant of God were prepared, one in Rome and the other in Madrid (the latter for texts in Spanish). According to the practice in force at the time, very detailed questionnaires were prepared by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which also took into consideration the criticisms of those opposed. Their publications in opposition to the Servant of God were handed over to the postulation. In all, 980 sessions were held and 92 witnesses were heard, all of them in visu, a third of whom knew

Mons. Escrivá de Balaguer for periods of between 20 and 40 years. The interview of one witness took 60 hearings and the procedural depositions are contained in approximately 11,000 typewritten pages. Furthermore, the documents are the result of research conducted in 390 archives and collected in 11 volumes.

More than 50% of the texts come from outside Opus Dei, and the tribunals also examined some former members of Opus Dei. Moreover, the postulation was careful to indicate the names of persons openly opposed to the cause and to propose that some of them be questioned by the tribunals; regarding one of them, the tribunal decided that she had to be excluded from testifying, since it considered her to be unreliable and unsuitable to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal: the relevant decision was made with the express approval of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

A very important proof for judging a person's holiness comes from his or her writings. Those of the Servant of God Mons. Josemarla Escrivá de Balaguer were examined by four theological censors, two for the published writings and two for those unpublished. Here are some of their judgements:

- "Escrivá possesses the strength of the classics: the character of a Church Father";

- "He wí11 remain in the history of spirituality", "at the level of the great figures of Tradition";

- "You can see that these writings preceded and anticipated the more important decisions of Vatican 11.... They presented the ideal of the common Christian life in direct and fruitful contact with the Gospel, as has never been seen before in the Church's history";

- "[The writings] document the heights of the mystical life which he reached at a very early age";

- "The example and message of the founder of Opus Dei impress one as evidently a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church".

Regarding the documentation presented, some of the theological Consultors said the following:

- "The array of proofs in this cause is so abundant that one could not ask for more";

- "Study of the processes' acts show the unexceptionable rigour with which the instructional phase was conducted";

- "We have at hand an extraordinary quantity of data which helps us arrive at a certain judgement concerning a figure of exceptional stature";

- "The rigorous and detailed documentation of even the smallest detail leaves nothing in the dark, and to have heard some discordant voices gives soundness and credibility to the whole exposition";

- "The instructional phase appears exhaustive: the information which can be inferred from all the depositions covers the entire course of the Servant of God's life. One is struck above all by the quality of the witnesses examined and by the long acquaintance which the majority of them had with the Servant of God.... The convergence and explicitness of the testimony regarding the heroism attained by the Servant of God has the nature of a definitive proof".

III. Examination by

the Congregation

The final session Qf the tribunal took

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6