Pope Benedict XVI greets beatification pilgrims
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
VATICAN CITY
Pope Benedict XVII wore the first lei of his papacy with a big smile. He received it to enthusiastic applause at a special May 16 audience of pilgrims in Rome for the May 14 beatification of Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai and Mother Ascension Nicol Goni.
The pope granted the audience to about 700 pilgrims gathered in the first 10 rows of the 6,200-seat papal audience hall. He did not preside at the beatification ceremony two days earlier, signifying a change in Vatican policy aimed at creating a greater differentiation between beatifications and canonizations.
Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification held in St. Peter’s Basilica. Cardinals had traditionally conducted beatification ceremonies up to the early 1970s, when the pope began presiding over them.
Pope Benedict first read a statement in Spanish for those in the audience who had come for the beatification of Mother Ascension Nicol Goni, the Spanish founder of the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary.
Then in English he addressed the Blessed Marianne pilgrims who had come mostly from Syracuse, N.Y., and Hawaii.
“It is with great joy that I welcome you to Rome, dear brothers and sisters, for the Beatification of Mother Marianne Cope,” the pope said.
“I know that your participation in Saturday’s solemn liturgy, so significant for the universal church, will have been a source of renewed grace and commitment to the exercise of charity which marks the life of every Christian,” he said.
He proceeded with a short description of Blessed Marianne’s life. When he said, “Fifty other Congregations received the same plea for assistance, but only Mother Marianne, in the name of her Sisters, responded positively,” the New York and Hawaii contingents burst into applause.
“Undoubtedly the generosity of Mother Marianne was, humanly speaking, exemplary,” Pope Benedict said. “Good intentions and selflessness alone, however, do not adequately explain her vocation.”
“It is only the perspective of faith which enables us to understand her witness – as a Christian and as a Religious – to that sacrificial love which reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ,” he said.
“All that she achieved was inspired by her personal love of the Lord which she in turn expressed through her love of those abandoned and rejected by society in a most wretched way,” he said.
“Dear brothers and sisters, let us today be inspired by Blessed Marianne Cope to renew our commitment to walk the path of holiness,” the pope said.
Pope Benedict ended by intoning the Pater Noster (Our Father) and giving an apostolic blessing.
“With my own prayers that your pilgrimage here to Rome may be a time of spiritual enrichment, I gladly impart to you my Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to the members of your families at home, especially those who are ill or suffering in any way,” he said.
Pope Benedict then greeted about 15 representatives from the contingents of beatification pilgrims. Included in the Blessed Marianne group were Bishop of Syracuse James Moynihan, postulator Franciscan Father Ernestino Piacentini, director of the cause Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, general minister of the Sisters of St. Francis Sister Patricia Burkard, assistant minister of the Sisters of St. Francis Sister Grace Ann Dillenscheider, and the woman who, as a girl, was cured of a fatal illness through the intercession of Mother Marianne, leading to her beatification.
Sister Grace Anne presented the first lei, maile and kukui nut entwined. The second came from Gayle Bakiano of Kauai, who greeted the pope on a wheelchair assisted by Jerry Omakanim.
Omakanim said he told the pope — who kissed Bakiano’s hand when greeting her — that the lei was “from the common people of Hawaii.”
Sister Mary Laurence said she thanked the pope “for his love of animals.”
“He smiled,” she said.
The crowd was restless and excited while waiting for about an hour for the pope to arrive. Each group filled the time singing songs in Hawaiian, English, Spanish and Latin, and taking photographs of each other.