Cardinal Semeraro: To the new Blesseds we commend the Ukrainian people, migrants and our quest for peace
To the new Blesseds we commend our needs and our worries, our hopes and our expectations. Today in a special way, we commend to them the Ukrainian people, migrants and our desire for peace - said Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in his homily, read in Polish by Bishop Jacek Kiciński, during the Holy Mass for the Beatification of Sr. M. Paschalis Jahn and her nine Companions, which took place on June 11th in the cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Wrocław.
Cardinal Semeraro emphasised in his homily that "the spiritual wealth of the new Blessed supports and inspires us to be better people". He added that at the same time "their martyrdom brings to mind the situations we are experiencing today in 21st-century Europe".
He recalled that in a climate of violence and oppression, typical of this final phase of World War II, "the witness of the new Blessed is a word of love, is a sign of charity and of total surrender to the heavenly Spouse!"
Cardinal Semeraro pointed out that out of love for God, Sr. Paschalis Jahn and her Companions wished to defend their virginity and chastity with their martyrdom. "If even in the sloganeering expressions and concepts of the world in which we live there seems to be no place for such words, we cannot allow the treasure they contain to be eliminated and taken away from us," he stated.
He added that “through the holy life and exemplary martyrdom of Sr. Paschalis Jahn and her Companions, the Lord wanted to say to the inhabitants of this land: ‘You are a beloved people to me, your hope is my faithfulness, I have not abandoned you and I will never abandon you’”.
At the beginning of the Eucharist, Archbishop Józef Kupny, Metropolitan Archbishop of Wrocław, greeted all those gathered, inviting them to pray together. “Saints do not pass away,” he said.
During the beatification Mass, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read from the mandate of the Holy Father Francis the apostolic letter by virtue of which the Pope inscribed the venerable Servants of God Sister Paschalis Jahn and nine Companions from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth - Edelburgis Kuban. Paschalis Jahn and nine Companions of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Elizabeth - Edelburgis Kubitzki, Rosaria Schilling, Adela Schramm, Sabina Thienel, Sapientia Heymann, Melusja Rybka, Adelheidis Töpfer, Felicytas Ellmerer, Acutina Goldberg - to the ranks of the Blessed. The liturgical feast of the new Blesseds will be celebrated on May 11.
Press Office of the Polish Bishops' Conference
Translated by Sr. Ewa Dobrzelecka / Office for Foreign Communication of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
