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Holy Father canonizes three saints from the nineteenth century

      The Holy Father elevated three more to sainthood yesterday when he canonized three religious founders, two Italian and one French, all from the nineteenth century. Two bridged the 19th and 20th centuries: Saint Giovanni Calabria, an Italian priest from Verona who founded the Congregations for the Poor Servants of Divine Mercy and died at the age of 81 in 1954, and Saint Agostina Livia Petrantoni, founder of the Sisters of Charity who was martyred by an angry patient in 1913 at the age of 49. The other was Saint Marcelino Champagnat, a French brother who founded the Marist Brothers in the aftermath of the French Revolution. For more, click on New Saints.

      ROME, 17 (NE) Sunday Blessed Marcelino Champagnat, Blessed Giovanni Calabria and Blessed Agostina Livia Petrantoni were canonized by Pope John Paul II. The canonization, announced last 9th of January, took place Sunday April 18.

      Blessed Marcelino Champagnat was born in a town near Lyon, France, in 1789, on the eve of French Revolution. In 1817 he founded the Brothers of Mary or Marist Brothers, for the education of young people. They grew admirably and extended their evangelizing and educative labor on the whole world. Champagnat was beatified by pope Pius XII in 1955.

      Father Giovanni Calabria was born in Verona, Italia in 1873. He founded the Congregations of the Poor Servants of Divine Mercy, with masculine and feminine branches. They expanded in Italy, Angola and South America. He was called to the House of the Father in 1954.

      Blessed Agostina Livia Petrantoni, also of Italian origin, founded the Sisters of Charity. She lived from 1864 until 1913, when, working as a nurse, she was murdered by one of her patients in a fit of madness.

Britain's Bishops back bombing barrage while Spanish Bishops call for prayer as petition for peace

      The Vatican released the extensive itinerary for Pope John Paul II's return in two months to his beloved homeland of Poland. It will be his eighth visit back since he became Pope in 1978, all but two during June, and it will be his longest extended stay there, covering nearly two full weeks which will entail twenty different cities from June 5 to June 17. It will be a nostalgic journey for the 81 year-old Polish Pontiff who will not only visit the graves of his parents, but beatify over one hundred Nazi martyrs and canonize Blessed Sister Cunegonde Kinga after celebrating the millennial Mass for the Archdiocese of Krakow. For more, click on Polish pilgrimage .

      LONDON (CWNews.com) -- The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have given their endorsement to the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia.

      Bishop David Konstant, the chairman of the bishops' committee for international affairs, said that NATO clearly had no choice but to undertake a military operation, in light of human-rights abuses against the people of Kosovo.

      "War is a failure," the bishop's statement read. "But we have to remind ourselves that enormous numbers of people were being murdered, expelled from their homes, and-- more recently and more alarmingly-- raped in order to expel them from their own district."

      Meanwhile, Church News from Noticias Eclesiales reported from Madrid that the Spanish bishops have united their voice to the numerous appeals made by Pope John Paul II and are promoting a campaign of prayer in favor of peace in the Balkans. The Executive Committee of the Episcopal Conference issued this week a declaration pointing out the necessity that "peace and fraternity regain their say" in this region.

      In view of the "dramatic effects" that the situation of violence is reaching, the Spanish Bishops' Conference has requested Catholics and all men of good will to pray for a solution to the conflict through prayer. Also, it has invited everyone to collaborate as much as possible with the humanitarian help of victims and refugees.

      Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco, asked Catholics of the archdiocese to promote through their personal life and public behaviors "the moral and culture of peace". The Archbishop invited them as well "to request the Risen Lord peace with humbleness and perseverance".

      The Spanish Cardinal has requested also all priests and ecclesial communities of Madrid to always include in their daily prayers "the prayer for peace as long as the war in the European region continues".

Pope's Poland Pilgrimage set, will entail one of longest of his Pontificate

      The Vatican released the extensive itinerary for Pope John Paul II's return in two months to his beloved homeland of Poland. It will be his eighth visit back since he became Pope in 1978, all but two during June, and it will be his longest extended stay there, covering nearly two full weeks which will entail twenty different cities from June 5 to June 17. It will be a nostalgic journey for the 81 year-old Polish Pontiff who will not only visit the graves of his parents, but beatify over one hundred Nazi martyrs and canonize Blessed Sister Cunegonde Kinga after celebrating the millennial Mass for the Archdiocese of Krakow. For more, click on Polish pilgrimage .

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II will visit 20 different towns during his June trip to Poland, according to the schedule for that trip, made public today by the Vatican.

      The Pope's eighth trip to his native country will also be his longest, lasting from June 5 to June 17. His tour will begin at Gdansk, on the Baltic, and end in Krakow with visits to the graves of his parents. Some noteworthy stops on his itinerary will be:

On June 7, in Torun, he will meet with Polish academic leaders and preside at the beatification of Father Stefan Wincenty Frelichowski, a priest who died at the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.

On June 8 he will celebrate the liturgy with Eastern-rite Catholics in Siedlce, near Warsaw, and take part in ecumenical ceremonies in Drohiczyn.

On June 11, in Warsaw, he will meet with the Polish president and parliament, and visit memorials dedicated to victims of World War II and of the Holocaust. He will end the day at a meeting of the synod of the Polish Church, in the Warsaw cathedral.

On June 13, again in Warsaw, he will beatify 108 martyrs of the Nazi Holocaust.

On June 14, he will celebrate a Mass marking the 1000th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Krakow.

On June 16, he will preside at the canonization of Sister Cunegonde Kinga.

      The Pope's previous pastoral visits to Poland took place in June 1979, June 1983, June 1987, June 1991, August 1991, May 1995, and June 1997.

Burundi Bishops balk at bowing to Rwanda's president after arrest of Gikongoro's Archbishop last week

      In a show of solidarity and certain protest to the arrest of their fellow bishop Archbishop Augustine Misago of Gikongoro, the Bishops of Burundi refused to meet with Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu the man who arrested Archbishop Misago on false claims of mutiny five years ago. Bizimungu is in Burundi for the week and the Burundian government had hoped there would be a meeting of the minds between the Catholic hiearchy and civic leaders. Not while Misago remains imprisoned. For more, click on Protest in Burundi

      BUJUMBURA, Rwanda (CWNews.com) -- The Catholic bishops of Burundi have refused to meeting with the visiting President of Rwanda, as a form of protest after the arrest of a Rwandan bishop.

      The Burundi bishops-- together with the country's papal nuncio, Archbishop Emile Tscherrig-- said that they would not attend official ceremonies during the visit by Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu to their country this week. They said their decision to boycott the official state visit reflects their "astonishment" over the arrest of Archbishop Augustine Misago of Gikongoro, Rwanda.

      Archbishop Misago was arrested after President Bizimungu charged him with participating in the genocidal killings that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Bishop Simon Ntamwana of Gitega, the head of the Burundi episcopal conference, said that the bishops wished to express their "moral and spiritual support" for their imprisoned brother in Rwanda.

For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales. Both CWN and NE are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provides this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

    Up until last month the official Vatican site provided just a short section on Jubilee 2000, but a few months ago they launched a special site specifically dealing with events surrounding Jubilee 2000 which can be found at THE VATICAN'S JUBILEE 2000 SITE. It provides a plethora of information on each day's gospel plus corresponding maps, special audio features to pray with the Holy Father, history on the Popes with pictures - though most is still in Italian - but there is plenty here already in English to enjoy with much more to come in the future.

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April 19, 1999 volume 10, no. 76   DAILY CATHOLIC