Pope Advances Sainthood Cause of 6-Year-Old Italian Girl
Although she never reached her seventh birthday, Antonietta Meo "reached the summit of Christian perfection" and is an example of holiness for all children, Pope Benedict XVI said.
"What a shining example your little peer left us," the Pope told members of the children's section of Italian Catholic Action during a Dec. 20 audience.
Antonietta, known by the nickname "Nennolina," lived in Rome in the 1930s and died of bone cancer at age 6.
The Pope advanced her sainthood cause Dec. 17, signing a decree recognizing that she heroically lived the Christian virtues.
When she was 5, one of her legs had to be amputated, and she bore it cheerfully, saying she connected it with Jesus' suffering. As her disease worsened, she dictated poems or letters to God, Jesus and Mary. She died five months before her seventh birthday, and the letters were later cited as the record of a young mystic.
The Pope told the Catholic Action children, "I hope that her cause for beatification will conclude soon and happily."
The recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is needed for her beatification, and recognition of another miracle is needed for canonization. If eventually canonized, she would become the youngest non-martyr saint to be recognized under modern saint-making procedures.
Pope Benedict told the children that although Nennolina was very young "she demonstrated a very special faith, hope and charity, as well as the other Christian virtues."
"Although she was a fragile girl, she was able to give a strong and robust witness to the Gospel and left a profound mark on the Rome diocesan community;" the Pope said.
"You can consider her your friend, a model to inspire you," he said.
"Her existence, so simple and yet so important, shows that holiness is for people of every age: for children and young people, for adults and for the aged," Pope Benedict said.
"Every season of our existence can be the right one for deciding to love Jesus seriously and to follow Him faithfully," the Pope told the children. "In a few years, Nennolina reached the summit of Christian perfection that we are all called to climb; she quickly traveled the superhighway that leads to Jesus."
The same day he recognized her heroic virtues, the Pope addressed the Vatican's saint-making experts and encouraged them to keep finding new models of holiness to propose to contemporary society.
The Pope said saints today "help make the words of the Gospel and the mission of the Church more credible and attractive."
"Contact with the saints opens the way to real spiritual resurrections, to lasting conversions and to the flowering of new saints," he said.
The Pope spoke to more than 300 postulators, the people responsible for presenting and defending the evidence in sainthood causes.
The Pope noted that in January the Church will mark the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of Divinus Perfectionis Magister, a document issued by Pope John Paul II to simplify Church procedures for the declaration of sainthood.
Pope Benedict said the process was less complicated under the new rules, but still retained the "solidity of research" needed before someone is made a saint.
The Pope said it was important for the Church to "propose ever new models of holiness" because people are convinced by real witness. He said there was evidence of a growing interest in the saints on a religious and cultural level.
Postulators, he said, have a delicate task that requires careful discernment and objectivity. They and everyone involved in sainthood causes are called to place themselves "exclusively at the service of the truth," he said. Since his election in 2005, Pope Benedict has canonized 14 people. During that time, papal delegates have presided over some 50 beatification ceremonies.
For more information about Nennolina's cause for sainthood please visit www.nennolina.it/bio_index_EN.htm
This item 8071 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
