The Holy See Press Office announced on Thursday, December 14, that during an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized the congregation to promulgate eight decrees recognizing a miracle attributed to two Venerable Servants of God, the martyrdom of five priests and a seminarian, and the heroic virtues of three other Servants of God.
The miracles
Two of the decrees approved on Thursday relate to miracles attributed to two Venerable Servants of God. The first decree recognizes a miracle attributed to the intercession of Mexican priest Moisés Lira Serafín, a professed member of the Missionary Sons of the Holy Spirit and founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The second decree recognizes a miracle attributed to the intercession of Spanish nun Ana de Jesús (born Ana de Lobera y Torres), a professed member of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites.
The martyrs
The Pope also authorized the promulgation of decrees recognizing the martyrdom of five priests and a seminarian, all of them Servants of God. The first, Giuseppe Rossi, a diocesan priest born on November 3, 1912, was killed for hatred of the faith on February 26, 1945, near Castiglione Ossola, Italy.
The decrees also recognize the martyrdom of five other Servants of God who were killed for hatred of the faith on November 28, 1964, in Baraka and Fizi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are: Luigi Carrara and Giovanni Didonè, professed priests of the Holy Ghost Missionary Society for Foreign Missions; Vittorio Faccin, a professed religious of the same society; and Albert Joubert, a diocesan priest.
The list of decrees also includes the Servant of God Ján Havlík, a seminarian of the Society of the Missionaries of Saint Vincent de Paul, who was killed for hatred of the faith on December 27, 1965, in Skalica, Slovakia.
The heroic virtues
The remaining three decrees, concerning heroic virtues, refer to the Servants of God Alberto Beretta (born Enrico), a professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins; Ernesto Guglielmo Cofiño Ubico, a Guatemalan lay faithful and father of a family; and Francesca Lancellotti, an Italian lay faithful and mother of a family.
