ROME, Amelia Peirone. It has been in Rome for shortly more than 5 years, and they just named a Secretary this past Monday. For a year and a half, the process was without this indispensable figure, or better said, it was completely an “orphan.” To be more exact, a cause for canonization without a Secretary is like an astronomer without a telescope, or an orchestra without a conductor.
Precisely on the feast day of St. John Bosco, Rome decided to name a Secretary. He is a Spaniard Benedictine monk, Fr. Alfredo Simón, who is already a consultor for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Named as “actor” or those responsible for the Cause are the Schoenstatt Fathers: “It is good news for Chile. It comes on this day of the great Founder of the Salesian Family from which the new Archbishop of Santiago emerged, The Most Reverend Ricardo Ezzati. There must be something to it since Mario Hiriart is a child of his new flock. It is also beautiful that it happens on the eve of the feast of the Virgen de la Candelaria (Candlemass, Presentation of the Lord), feast of Light. Our Founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, always prayed for the Church to know Schoenstatt’s light. Undoubtedly, everything is united in God’s plan. It has it’s time and rhythm,” Fathers Mariano Irurreta and Carlos Cox pointed out joyfully.
A layman committed to university education and professional work
The process of canonization for the Servant of God, Mario Hiriart Pulido, is the quietest and less well known of the processes of the Church in Chile, even though it has to do with a layman committed to university education and professional work. And it forms part of one of the most important religious Movements in this country.
A Cause requires arduous dedication, a great deal of documentation, and a true reputation for sanctity. Nevertheless, this Cause counts on very few persons who help to unfold the great gift it is for any country to count on a “friend, protector, and intercessor,” as a Saint is.
A Saint is like a fire
Not infrequently do we hear the phrase “you do not love what you do not know.” In this Cause, only one person, an engineer, is the motor for a powerful chain of intercession which extends throughout the world. It adds persons who ask for help and others who pray for others. Only one married couple takes care of sending quickly the effective Mario novena to anyone who asks for it. Only one person invited famous world personalities to write about Mario and only one person created a book which distinguishes itself in the bookstores “Amarras desde la Cruz del sur, 15 famosos con Mario” (Ties from the Cross of the South, 15 famous persons with Mario). A few priests present to their faithful the figure of this so human and so ecclesial engineer. A small group of the first of Mario’s friends sow his rich thinking and spirituality wherever they go.
A Saint is like a fire. Wherever he/she goes, everything is on fire. Our country needs, perhaps, more ardor of faith, ideals, gratitude. But as Pope Benedict XVI says today: a Saint is not the work of some strategy, rather it is from an encounter between God and his people who accept the gift which comes forth. Perhaps we are distracted in Chile? Or we believe that only one person is not capable of making the difference.
The process for Mario Hiriart began in 1997, with Father Joaquín Alliende as postulator. The process for diocesan investigation developed between 1998 and 2004.
News item in EL MERCURIO, Santiago, Chile (Spanish)
Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA 02142011
