Pope proclaims four new saints

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI gave the Catholic Church new saints Sunday, bestowing the Church’s highest honour in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square on four faithful from past centuries whose lives he hopes will inspire courage in today’s followers.

The new saints are a French woman who set up a chapel in a log cabin in the American frontier land and went on to establish a girls’ college; a Mexican bishop who risked persecution to educate seminarians; a nun who promoted public schooling for girls in Italy, and an Italian priest who helped the deaf. “The Church rejoices in the four new saints,” Benedict told a crowd of several thousand at the end of the two-hour ceremony.”May their example inspire us and their prayers obtain for us guidance and courage.”Among those celebrating the Mass on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica were prelates based in the US Midwest, including ailing Chicago Cardinal Francis George and five churchmen from Indiana, where Mother Theodore Guerin, who is one of the four new saints, established a college for women, which enrolled its first student in 1841.George, along with hundreds of alumnae, trustees and students of St Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, flew to Rome for the ceremony.The cardinal is recovering from bladder cancer surgery he had in late July.The pope and the cardinal embraced at the altar shortly after George recited part of the Mass near Communion time.Guerin, a frail and sickly woman known for her determination, endured harsh conditions on what was American frontier land in the early 1800s and resisted the objections of a local bishop in pursuing her dream of establishing Catholic education for the pioneers.Benedict told the crowd that after a long journey by sea and land, Guerin, who was born in Brittany in 1798, and five other French nuns, turned a log cabin into a chapel.By the time of her death in 1856, her order was running schools and orphanages in Indiana, the pope noted.Nampa-AP”The Church rejoices in the four new saints,” Benedict told a crowd of several thousand at the end of the two-hour ceremony.”May their example inspire us and their prayers obtain for us guidance and courage.”Among those celebrating the Mass on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica were prelates based in the US Midwest, including ailing Chicago Cardinal Francis George and five churchmen from Indiana, where Mother Theodore Guerin, who is one of the four new saints, established a college for women, which enrolled its first student in 1841.George, along with hundreds of alumnae, trustees and students of St Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, flew to Rome for the ceremony.The cardinal is recovering from bladder cancer surgery he had in late July.The pope and the cardinal embraced at the altar shortly after George recited part of the Mass near Communion time.Guerin, a frail and sickly woman known for her determination, endured harsh conditions on what was American frontier land in the early 1800s and resisted the objections of a local bishop in pursuing her dream of establishing Catholic education for the pioneers.Benedict told the crowd that after a long journey by sea and land, Guerin, who was born in Brittany in 1798, and five other French nuns, turned a log cabin into a chapel.By the time of her death in 1856, her order was running schools and orphanages in Indiana, the pope noted.Nampa-AP