Cardinal Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for Canonizations, beatified Father Beotti, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1944, in Piacenza.
(Vatican News) Cardinal Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for Canonizations, presided over the beatification ceremony at the Cathedral of Piacenza, Italy, on the afternoon of September 30, canonizing Father Giuseppe Beotti, who was killed by the Nazis. Blessed. The cardinal said in his homily at Mass that the new Blessed protected and saved the Jews and helped them escape persecution by the Nazis. This was undoubtedly Father Beotti’s “greatest heroic act.”
Father Beotti was born in a peasant family in 1912 and was ordained a priest in 1938. Father Beotti soon became widely respected for his charity work in helping the poor and nurturing young people. He provided aid to everyone, including partisans, Jews, soldiers, and the wounded. During the occupation of Nazi Germany, he defended the rights of his parishioners, resulting in a criminal trial and later acquittal.
Father Beotti took in and rescued deserters, captives and persecuted people, including more than a hundred Jews. The Jews, with the help of parishioners, hid in a hut. Faced with the Nazi arrests and reprisals, Father Beotti did not flee, but always acted as a compass that reassured his parishioners and prayed diligently. On July 20, 1944, he was arrested and shot together with a priest and a seminarian who had taken refuge in his parish.
Cardinal Semeraro noted that it was well known that hosting Jews was punishable by death for the Nazis. The cardinal mentioned Joseph Ulma and Victoria, who were canonized as Blessed in Poland on September 10. They, like Father Beotti, took in and helped “abused people”. This is another example of the Blesseds. A “shining example”.
The Prefect of the Congregation for Canonizations said that Father Beotti’s practice of charity in his pastoral work was “a decision in his life” and that he dedicated everything he had to the poor and that he “experienced poverty at home” ”, but he transformed it into a wealth of grace, “especially for those facing poverty and severe hardship.”
Link URL:www.vaticannews.cn
#Father #Beotti #murdered #Nazis #beatified #Vatican #News
2023-10-03 10:14:13
