Cardinal Agostino Vallini presided the last session of the Diocesan Process for the Cause of Canonization of Fr. Jenaro Fernandez (1909-1972). The session started with the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus”. The Notary of the Tribunal read the Act of the session in which Fr. Samson Silloriquez is entrusted to present to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints all the documents of the process sealed and signed in boxes.
The Process started on June 13, 2008 and concluded on June 28, 2010 after 50 working sessions wherein the writings were examined and 38 witnesses gave their testimony on the life, virtues and fame of sanctity of Fr. Jenaro. The Tribunal was composed of Gianfranco Bella, judge delegate; Francesco Maria Tasciotti, associate judge; Giuseppe D’Alonso, promoter of justice and Giuseppe Gobbi, notary.
Cardinal
Cardinal Vallini started his discourse making reference to the Year of Priests recently concluded, so as to express that besides the Holy Curate of Ars, another beautiful priestly figure is being presented for our attention. It has to do with Fr. Jenaro Fernandez “who lived and gave testimony of faith, hope and charity in our city”.
Cardinal Agostino Vallini presided the last session of the Diocesan Process for the Cause of Canonization of Fr. Jenaro Fernandez (1909-1972). After remembering some dates and aspects of the life of Fr. Jenaro, the Cardinal emphasized on the goal towards which he directed himself. The Servant of God wrote: ”My only ideal in life should be to imitate Jesus, be like Jesus, and be another Jesus; in such a way that Jesus and myself become one, one in mind, in desire, similar in all things. He understood that the priesthood does not only consist in “doing”, to work and act as being in Christ and to live for Him and afterwards to work for Him, performing that which the Apostle writes about himself:“My life is Christ…I do not live for myself, it is Christ who lives in me”
The Holy Father Benedict XVI, during his recent visit to Fatima, continued Cardinal Vallini, has affirmed: “Fidelity in the course of time is the name of love; of a coherent love, true and profound to Christ the priest”. Taking a look at the life of the Servant of God Fr. Jenaro Fernandez Echeverria, we can affirm calmly that he was really a witness of love, word that today we have frequently lost its original sense. The love molded his whole existence, lived without placing anything before Christ, his will and the salvation of the brothers”.
The Cardinal concluded his discourse saying” “I hope the Church, after having examined carefully the life, particularly the practice in heroic manner of the theological virtues: faith, hope and charity, and of the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, can write him in the book of the blessed presenting to all, particularly to his brothers of the Order of the Augustinian Recollects and to all the priests, as model to imitate in the road of Christian life which from the baptismal font leads to the heavenly Jerusalem”.
The assembly received the words of the Cardinal with great applause. The Prior General, Javier Guerra, in the name of the Order expressed his gratitude for the completion of the process.
Present in the Act were twenty Augustinian Recollects. Attendance
Present in the Act were twenty Augustinian Recollects, among them were Msgr. Jose Luis Lacunza, an Augustinian Recollect bishop of David (Panama); the Prior General, Javier Guerra; the Postulator for the Cause, Samson Silloriquez; the members of the General Council; the Prior provincial of St. Thomas of Villanova, Miguel Angel Hernandez; the Prior Provincial of Our Lady of the Candles, Norberto Escobar; religious of the communities in Rome and others coming from Spain. There was Fr. Gabriel Ferlisi, a Descalzed Augustinian; representatives from the Servants of Mary, Conceptionists of Teaching, Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary and Sisters of Charity of Cardinal Sancha. Some witnesses during the process also attended. There were as well the members of the family of Fr. Jenaro and several faithful from the chapel of the Curia General.
Thanksgiving mass
On the same day, June 28 in the afternoon, a solemn thanksgiving mass was celebrated in the chapel of the Curia General dedicated to the Virgin of Consolation. It was a vigil mass of the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul presided by Msgr. Jose Luis Lacunza.
Fr. Angel Martinez Cuesta, who lived with Fr. Jenaro at the Curia General, delivered the homily. In reference to the solemnity being celebrated, the preacher recalled the same words of Fr. Jenaro on the occasion of this solemnity of the holy apostles so as to give emphasis on his love to the Church and on his apostolic zeal.
“The zeal of Paul touches his heart. The salvation of souls was always one of his great passions. While still a child he dreamt of the missions in Brazil, when he was a young religious he greeted with enthusiasm those companions who year after year left the seminary of Monachil directly for Sourthern America. Even at the end of his life he asked to use the little strength left to him for the service of the poor souls of Labrea in the Amazonean Brazil.
He could not understand how a Christian could just be contented with his own salvation. The shout of Augustine: “Bring to Christ as many as you can” unceasingly resounded in his soul. At the end of the spiritual retreat in 1956 he asked: “What do souls want of me? Four years earlier he had asked renewed strength to dedicate himself in their favor…Like Augustine, he did not want to be saved alone, without the company of the faithful. “Brothers, he said in a homily in 1971, I do not want to save myself without you”
At the end of the mass, to share the joy of the events, everyone who attended was invited to a refreshment at the garden of the Curia General.