Synod to conclude Sunday with 5 beatifications

Vatican City, Oct 17, 2005 / 22:00 pm

As prelates gathered in Rome prepare to conclude the 11th General Synod of Bishops this weekend, the Vatican has announced the schedule for the final days, which will climax with a beatification ceremony on Sunday.

Today, the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, the bishops will gather for their smaller working groups in the afternoon, following a morning ceremony in which the Pope was presented with an integrated list of propositions from the working groups--which had met throughout the last week.

The groups will meet again tomorrow morning and in the afternoon.

On Thursday, there will be no General Congregation, while the General Relator, along with the Special Secretary and the Relators of the Working Groups study the Collective Amendments of the Propositions given to the Pope today.

The bishops will vote on the text of their final message on Friday morning and on the amended list of propositions Saturday morning.

On Sunday, World Mission Day, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass with all of the Synod Fathers marking the conclusion of the historic event. There, he will preside at the beatification of five future saints.

The newly proclaimed Blesseds will include Jozef Bilczewski, archbishop of Lviv of the Latins (1860 - 1923); Gaetano Catanoso, priest, founder of the Congregation of the Veronica Sisters of the Holy Countenance (1879 - 1963); Zygmunt Gorazdowski, priest, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph (1845 - 1920); Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, priest of the Society of Jesus (1901 - 1952); and Felice da Nicosia, of the Friars Minor Capuchin (1715 - 1787).

The Vatican’s Office for Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff released a statement which read: "On this Sunday, which closes the Year of the Eucharist and in which five new saints are proclaimed, we are invited to make the Eucharist ever more the summit and the source of the life and mission of the Church, and to be witnesses to the Gospel, even unto the ends of the earth."