Pope canonizes three new saints

October 24, 2011

Three new saints were canonized on October 23: St. Guido Maria Conforti (1865- 1931), an Italian archbishop; St. Luigi Guanella (1842- 1915), an Italian priest; and St. Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro (1837- 1905), a Spanish religious.

The Sunday canonization ceremony at the Vatican was disrupted when a man climbed out onto edge of the colonnade surrounding St. Peter’s Square, burned a copy of the Bible, and shouted, “Where is Christ?” before being escorted to safety by Vatican security officials.

The man who had disrupted the ceremony was said to be Romanian, although he had shouted in English. Vatican officials said that he appeared to be emotionally unstable.

Pope Benedict XVI—who gave no indication that he had noticed the attempted disruption—said that the three new saints, different in many ways, were alike insofar as they “allowed themselves to be transformed by divine love, around which they molded their entire lives.”

 

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Further information:

• Lives of the New Saints Were Transformed by Divine Charity (VIS)
• Pope names 3 new saints, man disrupts Mass in St. Peter’s Square (AP)