The process for the Cause has reached the moment in which the Positio super vitutibus (deposition on the virtues) of the Servant of God Mother Scholastica Rivata is consigned to the Theologians for examination.  The volume of the Positio will be sent to nine Theological Consultants of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.  Each one of them will express his own votum (evaluation).  After the scheduled study time and the written formulation of the votum, which requires several months, the “Theological Congress” will be held.  The report of the Theological Congress, edited by the General Promoter of the Faith, will then be consigned for scrutiny by the Session of Cardinals and Bishops who are members of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.  The Cardinal Prefect will then relay the conclusions to the Supreme Pontiff for the final decision and the publication of the decree on the “heroic virtues”.  At this point, if the outcome is positive, the Servant of God is called Venerable.

This laborious task is expected to last several months.  This is a time for us to confidently invoke the light of the Holy Spirit upon the Theologians and all the persons working for the cause of Mother Scholastica.  Besides this, we must also continue to nurture the fame of sanctity of our first Mother, making her known that many persons may implore her intercession in order to obtain the awaited miracle.

On September 21, 2011 the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, received Fr. Jose A. Perez, Postulator General of the Pauline Family, Sr. M. Regina, Superior General of the Disciples of the Divine Master, and Sr. M. Joseph Oberto.  Cardinal Amato knows and appreciates the Pauline Family and especially our Blessed James Alberione, for whom he hopes that the day of his canonization may be near.  He invited all to an ongoing animation with the means we have available for the diffusion of the knowledge of the Servant of God Mother Scholastica, to pray and to have others pray through her intercession.  In his familiarity with many ways of sanctity, he emphasized that today’s world needs the image of saints.  The saints are living pages of the Gospel.  They speak in a positive manner and act accordingly.  Against the hell created by man in our cities, Cardinal Amato says, the saint creates an oasis of paradise.  The newsmen continually present us as men and women who transgress every civil and moral law, closing themselves to the good that exists around us, and transmitting distrust and pessimism.  The saints, instead, communicate good news.  They teach us to see the reality around us in its authenticity with optimism and enable us to understand that we are surrounded also, and especially, by good, simple, and normal persons who live the Gospel joyfully in their families, in the dedication to their work, in the education of their children.  Holiness is a challenge and a necessity for all the baptized.  It conquers every ideology and convinces even the most lukewarm to appreciate it.

*For a better understanding of the complex process for the cause of beatification and canonization, see the contribution of the General Postulator of the Pauline Family, Fr. Jose Antonio Perez, Il lungo cammino verso la canonizzazione, published in Il Cooperatore Paolino, n. 4/luglio-agosto 2011 (in Italian).