Pedro Calungsod, Filipino lay catechist and martyr :The Holy Father has decreed that the canonization will be held in Rome on October 21

October 19, 2012

Pedro Calungsod, Filipino lay catechist and martyr :The Holy Father has decreed that the canonization will be held in Rome on October 21

The Holy Father has decreed that the canonization will be held in Rome on October 21, 2012.

Pedro Calungsod was a 17th century teenage catechist of the Jesuit mission in the Marianas. On April 2, 1672 he was killed for his faith together with Bl. Diego San Luis Vitoris, SJ in Guam. The canonization process for Pedro Calungsod started on June 25, 1998. On March 5, 2000 he was declared a "beatus". On December 19, 2011 a miracle through his intercession was approved.

"Dear brothers and sisters, pray that [the new cardinals'] lives will always reflect the Lord Jesus, our sole Shepherd and Teacher, Source of every hope, Who points out the path to everyone. And pray also for me, that I may continually offer to the People of God the witness of sound doctrine and guide holy Church with a firm and humble hand."

Following his homily the Pope pronounced the the formula of creation of the new cardinals, their names and the diaconate or presbyteral order to which they have been assigned. The new cardinals then recited the Creed and swore their faithfulness and obedience to the Pope and his successors. They then received their biretta and ring from the hands of the Pope who also assigned them their title or diaconate.

Following the ceremony Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, introduced the ordinary public consistory for the canonisation of the following blesseds:

Jacques Berthieu, French martyr and priest of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Pedro Calungsod, Filipino lay catechist and martyr

Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth and of the Congregation of the Humble Sister Servants of the Lord

Maria del Carmen (nee Maria Salles y Barangueras), Spanish foundress of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching

Maria Anna Cope (nee Barbara), German religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse U.S.A.

Kateri Tekakwitha, American laywoman, and Anna Schaffer, German laywoman.

The Holy Father has decreed that the canonisation ceremony will take place on Sunday 21 October. The consistory concluded with the apostolic blessing.

(Source: Vatican Information Service report: New Cardinals Must Love God, The Church and Their Fellow Men- 18/2/2012)