ShareThisThere’s good news coming from the Vatican and is looming on the horizon. This is the much awaited canonization of another Filipino martyr, Beato Pedro Calungsod.
Reports coming from the Roman Catholic hierarchy indicate that the canonization process is nearing completion and, if plans will not miscarry, it will happen in November at the Vatican.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma himself disclosed the good news even as he urged the Filipino faithful and laity to pray for the positive results of the canonization process for the Visayan martyr. He revealed that Calungsod’s canonization is part of the agenda of the Consistory of Cardinals all over the world when they meet at the Vatican City in November. After the cardinals approve the canonization, it will be up for Pope Benedict XIV to confirm and make a declaration and this may happen before the year ends or early next year.
The teenaged Beato Pedro Calungsod was martyred in Guam in 1672 along with a Spanish Jesuit priest, now Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores.
Calungsod was Fr. Diego’s lone companion when they were killed by the natives in the morning of April 2, 1672, at the village of Tomhom, on the island of Guam in the Marianas, for being Christians, teaching the religion and performing baptisms.
Pedro was already beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II on March 5, 2000 in Rome, Italy and his canonization has passed several stages, including the review of a miraculous healing through his intercession by scientists and medical doctors. A panel of theologians also reviewed the virtues attributed to Calungsod.
The Filipino Catholics eagerly await Pedro’s declaration as a saint after the Blessed San Lorenzo Ruiz.
Our country and people surely can use a second saint.