Vatican City, Jun 13, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Vatican Information Service announced today that Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will read an Apostolic letter proclaiming Fr. Eutaquio Van Lieshout Blessed. The proclamation will take place within a Mass to be celebrated at the Mineirao Statium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The proclamation of a person as Blessed by the Holy Father is an important step before someone is declared a Saint, though much investigation must still occur and a second miracle must be attributed to the intercession of the Beatified.
Fr. Eustaquio Van Lieshout was born in Aarle-Rixtel, Netherlands, on November 3, 1890, the eighth of eleven children, and was baptized the same day with the name of Humberto. He came from a very Catholic rural family. After reading the biography of the Belgian Blessed, Fr. Damian de Veuster of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, young Humberto decided to join the same order. During his noviciate, he took the name of Eustaquio. He was ordained a priest in 1919, and exercised the pastoral ministry in his own country until 1924.
In 1925 Fr. Van Lieshout arrived in Rio de Janeiro, and for the next 18 years worked as a missionary in Brazil. In April 1942, he took over the parish of Santo Domingo in Belo Horizonte, where a few months later, on August 30, 1943, he died.
In 1949, his mortal remains were transferred to his last parish, which is dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
On December 19, 2005 Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of a decree concerning a miracle attributed to the intercession of Fr. Eustaquio.