VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood
causes of three men and two women, including an Italian nun who was brutally
murdered by three teenage girls who claimed it had been a satanic sacrifice.
The pope signed the decrees June 19 during a meeting with
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. The
Vatican published the decrees the same day.
The pope recognized the martyrdom of Sister Maria Laura
Mainetti, a 60-year-old member of the Congregation of the Daughters of the
Cross, who had been killed "in hatred of the faith" when she was
murdered June 6, 2000, the sixth day of the sixth month. The three girls had
planned to stab her six times each to indicate the biblical "number of the
beast."
Born near Milan in 1939, Sister Mainetti had dedicated her
life to helping those excluded by society, particularly drug addicts, juvenile
delinquents, the poor and sex workers. Her killers had known Sister Mainetti
from catechism class when they were younger.
When they ambushed and attacked her, she prayed for the
girls, asking that God forgive them. The young women were found guilty of
murder with reduced sentences because the court determined they were partially
insane at the time of the crime.
Except in the case of candidates officially recognized as
martyrs, the Catholic Church usually requires a miracle attributed to a
candidate's intercession as a condition for beatification. Even for martyrs, a
second miracle is required for canonization.
Among the other decrees signed June 19, the pope recognized
the miracle needed for the beatification of Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros, a
Venezuelan doctor born in 1864. He was a Third Order Franciscan and became
known as "the doctor of the poor." He was killed in an accident in
1919 on his way to helping a patient.
The pope also signed decrees recognizing the miracle needed
for the beatifications of:
-- Bishop Mamerto Esquiu of Cordoba, Argentina. He was born
in 1826 and died in 1883.
-- Father Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan, founder of the
Salvatorians, which includes the men's Society of the Divine Savior and the
women's Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Savior. Born Johann Baptist
Jordan in 1848 in Germany, he also founded the Catholic Teaching Society, in
which members would defend and proclaim the faith. He died in 1918 in
Switzerland.
-- Pope Francis also signed a decree recognizing the heroic
virtues of Sister Speranza Elizondo Garcia, also known as Sister Gloria Maria
of Jesus. Born in Durango, Mexico, in 1908, she was elected the superior
general of the Congregation of Missionary Catechists of the Poor in 1961 and
died in 1966 in Monterrey.
Even though Pope Francis has continued to issue decrees
clearing the way for the beatification of sainthood candidates, because of the
COVID-19 pandemic, beatification ceremonies that had been scheduled for May,
June and September, have been postponed.