BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, JUNE 19, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Dutch-born Father Eustaquio Van Lieshout, beatified in Brazil, was presented as a model of contemplation as well as apostolic action and dedication to souls.
Last Thursday, on the solemnity of Corpus Christi, 70,000 faithful attended the beatification of this missionary of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
During the beatification Mass, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, read at Benedict XVI's behest the apostolic letter with which the Pope inscribed the servant of God, Father Van Lieshout, in the list of the blessed.
The cardinal stressed the importance of Father Van Lieshout's "social message." He was a man who was greatly concerned about "the poor, the afflicted, all those who suffered and children," the Vatican prefect noted.
According to Cardinal Saraiva Martins, ceremonies such as this represent a stimulus so that the faithful have as reference people whom the Church considers models of humility and humanity.
Some 50 bishops and 60 priests attended the ceremony, in addition to the crowd that gathered in Belo Horizonte's Mineiro stadium.
Also present were some 30 members of the new blessed's family, who traveled for the occasion from the Netherlands, as well as Father Gonxalo Belem, 82, whose miraculous cure of cancer of the larynx four decades ago opened the doors to the beatification.
Inspired by biography
Van Lieshout was born in Aarle-Rixtel, in the Netherlands, on Nov. 3, 1890. He was baptized the same day and given the name Humberto. He was the eighth of 11 siblings in a farming family, explains the biographical note issued by the Vatican Information Service.
It was the reading of the biography of Blessed Father Damien de Veuster, the Belgium-born apostle of lepers, which led Van Lieshout to enter the same Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. During his novitiate, he took the name Eustaquio.
He was ordained a priest in 1919 and carried out his pastoral ministry in his country until 1924. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro the following year.
For 18 years, he worked as a missionary in Brazil. In April 1942 he became parish priest of St. Dominc's in Belo Horizonte, where he died on Aug. 30, 1943.
In 1949, his remains were translated from the cemetery to his last parish.
Last Oct. 19, Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Dutch missionary, which opened the doors to his beatification.
ZE06061902 - 2006-06-19
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-16357?l=english
Dutch Missionary Beatified in Brazil
Father Eustaquio Van Lieshout
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