Pope Francis has requested local churches to launch an annual commemoration of people from their communities, including workers, spouses, young people and the poor, beginning in the Holy Year 2025.
“Everyone can recognise in many people they meet along the way witnesses of the Christian virtues, in particular faith, hope and charity: couples who have faithfully lived their love, opening themselves to life; men and women who, in their various occupations, have supported their families and cooperated in spreading the Kingdom of God; adolescents and young people who have followed Jesus with enthusiasm; pastors who, through their ministry, have poured out the gifts of grace on God’s holy people; men and women religious who, by living the counsels of the Gospel, have been a living image of Christ the Bridegroom,” the pontiff wrote in a letter dated 16 November 2024.
“We cannot forget the poor, the sick, the suffering who in their weakness have found support in the divine Master,” he continued. “It is about that ‘everyday’ holiness ‘next door,’ in which the Church scattered throughout the world has always been rich.”
“We are called to allow ourselves to be inspired by these models of holiness, among whom stand out first of all the martyrs who shed their blood for Christ and those who have been beatified and canonized for being examples of Christian life and our intercessors.
“We then think of the Venerables, men and women whose heroic exercise of virtue has been recognized, of those who in singular circumstances have made of their lives an offering of love to the Lord and to their brothers and sisters, as well as the Servants of God whose Causes for beatification and canonisation are underway.
“These processes show how much the witness of holiness is also present in our time in which the great witnesses to the faith shine like stars (cf. Phil 2:15), who have marked the experience of the particular Churches and, at the same time, have been fruitful throughout history.
“They are all our friends, companions on the road, who help us realize our baptismal vocation to the full and show us the most beautiful face of the Church, which is holy and the mother of the Saints.
“It seems important to me that all particular churches commemorate their saints and blesseds on a single date, as well as the venerables and servants of God of their respective territories,” he added. “Therefore, I urge the particular churches, starting from the coming Jubilee of 2025, to remember and honor these figures of holiness, every year on 9 November.”
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Dioceses should commemorate their own saints each year, pope says (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops)
Pope Francis, Remembrance in the particular churches of their own saints, blesseds, venerables and servants of God (Vatican)
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Vatican Media