the curia informs - Passio Christi

THE CURIA INFORMS
introduced the Cause and read the necessary decree
for each Official. The Officials, in turn, took the
“oath to fulfill faithfully their duty and …maintain
secrecy.” Fr. Giovanni Zubiani, Postulator for the
Cause, also took the oath. (cfr: “Norms to be
observed in Inquiries made by Bishops”, February 7,
1983, par. 6C).
Present at the ceremony were Fr. Giovanni
Zubiani, Postulator Gemeral, Fr.Dominic Papa
(PAUL), Vice-Postulator for the Cause, as well as
many Passionist priests and students from Saints
John and Paul, the Passionist Generalate and also
Passionists from Scala Santa, the Provincial
Monastery of the Presentation Province. A goodly
number of the Passionists present had lived with Fr.
Theodore during his years as General Consultor and
Superior General and they affectionately recalled his
charity, kindness, gentleness, humility and other
virtues lived by a genuinely holy person.
Fr. Giovanni Zubiani, signs the oath to fulfill faithfully his
duty and maintain secrecy.
Camillo Cardinal Ruini, the Holy Father’s Vicar for the
Diocese of Rome, reads excerpts from a brief biography of
Fr. Theodore Foley.
During the ceremony Cardinal Ruini also read
excerpts from a brief biography of Fr. Theodore. The
text clearly indicated how he encouraged the study of
St. Paul of the Cross. In 1967 he urged the religious
throughout the entire Congregation to celebrate the
centenary of the canonization of St. Paul of the Cross.
He wrote: “He was a saint whom God gave us as a
model of holiness on the individual and communitarian
level, a sanctity that should always flourish in our
Congregation.”
Passionists and laity alike can learn much from the
life of Father Theodore Foley. Not only was he outstanding
in living the vows he had professed, but he
especially lived the spirit of these vows. He also eminently
lived the four foundational pillars of the
Passionist Congregation: Prayer, Penance, Poverty
and Solitude. Fr. Giovanni Zubiani remembers Fr.
Theodore as “a man who was open to dialogue, but
firm on the principles and charism of the
Congregation.” In his concluding remarks, Cardinal
Ruini expressed his pleasure in opening this Cause
and urged the Passionists “to walk the road to holiness
following the self-denial of Father Theodore
Foley.”
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July 2008 - PIB n. 17
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