During his homily, Cardinal Saraiva Martins pointed out that Fr. Foucauld, a French missionary who passed much of his life among the Tuareg, a nomadic people of the Sahara, "exercised an important influence on the spirituality of the 20th century.”
“At the beginning of this third millennium”, the Cardinal continued, “he continues to be a fruitful point of reference and an invitation to a radically evangelical form of life."
He said that the newly-Blessed stood out for his "acceptance of the Gospel in its simplicity, evangelizing without imposing, bearing witness to Jesus Christ while respecting other religions, and reaffirming the primacy of charity in fraternity."
Turning to the Italian nun Maria Pia Mastena, Cardinal Martins noted that her congregation has spread throughout Italy, Brazil and Indonesia, and that she herself made it her mission to take Christ to the poorest and most abandoned.
Her motto, he noted, was "when a brother is sad and suffering, it is our duty to bring a smile back to his face."
Finally, the cardinal remembered Maria Crocifissa Curcio who, he said, "was a simple and strong woman, seized by the love of God, stretching towards heaven while stooping attentively over the earth, especially over suffering and needy humanity."
Sunday’s beatifications were the latest in a string--particularly over the last few weeks--of men and women continuing paths to sainthood begun by the late Pope John Paul II.