, Nov 20, 2007 / 11:47 am (CNA).- The prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, said the example of the new Blessed Antonio Rosmini, who he called a “giant of the culture,” would help “to recover the friendship between faith and reason, between religion and ethical behavior at the public service of Christians.”

Before some eight thousand people gathered at the Palazzetto dello Sport in the Italian town of Novara, the Portuguese cardinal beatified the “Servant of God Antonio Rosmini, a priest, and the founder of the Institute of Charity and of the Sisters of Providence.”  His feast day will be celebrated on July 1, the day of his death.

Cardinal Saraiva pointed out later that Rosmini, “the philosopher, teacher, political theorist, apostle of the faith, prophet, [and] giant of the culture,” tells the people of today that it is possible to believe and to think of daily life; that faith and reason can be melded together in one’s living testimony.

“Abbot Rosmini lived a theological life in which faith led to hope and charity, with that dialogue of love confident in Providence, which led him to do nothing, either big or small …‘sustained by Providence itself’.”

“Let us welcome this message, making the God of love and providence the center, the heart of our lives as Christians in today’s society,” the cardinal said.

In speaking about his efforts in the area of culture, Cardinal Saraiva noted that “in response to the call of the popes of his time,” he developed a system of thought that was founded upon the faith.

He was misunderstood in his day, but his work received recognition in the encyclical Fides et Ratio by John Paul II.  The Church has recognized in his life’s work “the signs of virtues practiced in a heroic way.”

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