On Saturday, April 27, 2019, in the city of La Rioja in Argentina, His Eminence, Giovanni Angelo Cardinal Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, beatified our brother Martyr Friar Carlos de Dios MURIAS. The ceremony took place in La Rioja, Argentina.
Three other Venerable witnesses of Christ were beatified along with him: the Most Reverend Enrico Angelo ANGELELLI CARLETTI, Bishop of La Rioja, Argentina; Father Gabriel LONGUEVILLE, a French “Fidei Donum” diocesan priest;, and Wenceslao PEDERNERA, a layman and the father of a family.
The Minister General, Friar Marco TASCA, was there to represent our Conventual Franciscan family. With him were the Vicar General, Friar Jerzy NOREL; almost all of the members of the General Definitory; some other friars from the General Curia; the Most Reverend Gianfranco GIROTTI, Titular Bishop of Meta, Algeria; Friar Damian PĂTRAȘCU the General Postulator; and other friars from both Italy and other Jurisdictions of the Federación América Latina Conventuales (FALC), particularly those from the “Rioplatense” Province of St. Anthony of Padua in Argentina-Uruguay. In all, the delegation of friars numbered more than fifty.
There was impressive participation by members of the Church in Argentina; some fifty bishops, 500 priests and 30,000 faithful from all around the country were present.
The celebrations began Friday evening, when the Prefect of the Congregation celebrated Mass in the Cathedral of La Rioja, thanking the martyrs for their testimony to Christ and pointing them out as disciples for all to follow.
On Saturday at 10:00 a.m., Mass was celebrated in a beautiful park amid a festive atmosphere. Presiding on behalf of the Holy Father, Cardinal BECCIU, inscribed the four Venerables, the first fruits of the Martyrs of the Church in Argentina, into the Book of the Blessed. “These newly beatified,” said the Pope’s envoy “are martyrs of the Gospel, the seal of the message of the Second Vatican Council, and witnesses of the freshness of the Good News for every age.” After the solemn Mass and the Rite of Beatification, the delegation of friars headed towards the parish of Sañogasta, where Blessed Wenceslao PEDERNERA was martyred. There, they venerated his remains and concelebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving with the bishops. Returning to La Rioja, the friars engaged in two more celebrations on Sunday. The first was a morning Mass of Thanksgiving at Punta de los Llanos, the location where Blessed Bishop ANGELELLI CARLETTI was martyred. The second was an evening Mass of Thanksgiving in Chamical, where again the friars concelebrated with the bishops and priests, thanking God for the beatification of our confrere Carlos de Dios MURIAS and the diocesan priest Gabriel LONGUEVILLE.
These were days full of festivity, joy, manifestations of faith, and above all, thanksgiving—to the God of every vocation, because he has given the whole Church, and our Order in particular, powerful intercessors and witnesses to follow, so that we might walk with more determination and courage through the streets of the world.
May Blessed Carlos, Enrique, Gabriel and Wenceslao intercede for us!
Friar Damian PĂTRAȘCU, Postulator General
