Catholic World News News Feature
Charles de Foucauld, 2 others beatified Sunday November 11, 2005
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will preside at ceremonies in St. Peter's basilica for the beatification of three people, including the renowned French monk Charles de Foucauld, on November 13.
The others to be beatified are Maria Pia Mastena (1858- 1916), the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Countenance, and Maria Crocifissa Curcio (1877- 1957), founder of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
In keeping with the practice that he has indicated he will follow throughout his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI will not preside at the ceremony. However, at the conclusion of the Mass he will come to the Vatican basilica he reverence the relics of the newly beatified.
The beatification of Charles de Foucauld is a major occasion for Catholics both in his native France, where he was born in 1858, and in Algeria, where he was killed by bandits in 1916. Orphaned as a child, he entered the military and earned a reputation as a bold soldier and a playboy, before undergoing a profound religious conversion in 1886. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he became a Trappist monk, seeking to live in solitary prayer and contemplation. He eventually moved to a remote town in Algeria, living among Muslims and praying for them, saying that he wished to seen as a brother to all men: "a universal brother."
The beatification of Charles de Foucauld was originally scheduled for May 15 of this year, which was Pentecost Sunday. But it was postponed, along with several other such ceremonies, because of the illness and death of Pope John Paul II. It was the late Pope who, in December 2004, approved the decree recognizing the miracle that cleared the way for his beatification: the inexplicable healing of an Italian woman from cancer.
The French government will be represented at the beatification ceremonies by justice minister Pascal Clement and several other officials, as well as more than 200 members of the de Foucauld family and a delegation from the French military. The Algerian government is expected to send a representative from the Council of Islamic Affairs.
In an interview this week with the I Media news agency, Archbishop Henri Teissier of Algiers said that he was hopeful the beatification of the "universal brother" would give new impetus to the Christian faith in that region. He conceded that some Algerians criticize the French-born priest, because of his ties with the French colonial rulers of that era. But he expressed confidence that upon learning more about the priest's life and his love for his Muslim neighbors, the people of Algiers would recognize the depth of his call for universal brotherhood.
Maria Pia Mastena was born into a devout Italian family, and felt the call to religious life from an early age. Noted for her piety and fervor even as a child, she sought to enter the convent at the age of 14, but was not accepted as a postulant until she was 20. After years as a teaching nun and a short span as a contemplative in a Cistercian monastery, she founded the Sisters of the Holy Countenance in 1927, and devoted the remainder of her life to building that congregation.
Maria Crocifissa Curcio was also a pious child, in a large Sicilian family, who felt an early call to religious life. She became a third-order Carmelite at the age of 13. Having been heavily influenced by the writings of St. Therese of Lisieux, she traveled to Rome in 1925 for the canonization of the "Little Flower," and during that trip she felt the call to found a congregation of women religious to work with the poor in Santa Marinella, a small coastal town north of Rome. She spent the rest of her life working with the poor, especially women and children.
