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Detroit, Mich., Jun 28, 2017 / 11:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Venerable Solanus Casey, an American-born Capuchin priest who died in 1957 known for his ability as a spiritual counselor, will be beatified at a Nov. 18 Mass in Detroit, the local archdiocese announced Tuesday.

“We are filled with joy at receiving the final date of the beatification of Father Solanus,” Father Michael Sullivan, OFM Cap. and Provincial Minister of the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph, said June 27. “It is a beautiful way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his passing.”

Venerable Casey was known for his great faith, attention to the sick, and ability as a spiritual counselor.

The beatification Mass will be said at Ford Field in Detroit, which can accommodate as many as 60,000.

Venerable Casey will be the second American-born male to be beatified.

Born Bernard Casey on Nov. 25, 1870, he was the sixth child of 16 born to Irish immigrants in Wisconsin. At age 17 he left home to work at various jobs, including as a lumberjack, a hospital orderly, and a prison guard.

Reevaluating his life after witnessing a drunken sailor brutally stab a woman to death, he decided to act on a call he felt to enter the priesthood. Because of his lack of formal education, however, he struggled in the minor seminary, and was eventually encouraged to become a priest through a religious order rather than through the diocese.

So in 1898 he joined the Capuchin Franciscans in Detroit and after struggling through his studies, in 1904 was ordained a “sacerdos simplex” – a priest who can say Mass, but not publicly preach or hear confessions.

He was very close to the sick and was highly sought-after throughout his life, in part because of the many physical healings attributed to his blessings and intercession. He was also a co-founder of Detroit's Capuchin Soup Kitchen in 1929.

For 21 years he was porter at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit.

He is also known for his fondness for playing the violin and singing, although he had a bad singing voice because of a childhood illness which damaged his vocal chords.

Even in his 70s, Fr. Solanus Casey remained very active, and would even join the younger religious men in a game of tennis or volleyball. He died from erysipelas, a skin disease, on July 31, 1957, at the age of 87.

A miracle attributed to Venerable Casey's intercession was recognized by Pope Francis at a May 4 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

“I’m grateful to hear from the Capuchin friars that the date of the beatification has been finalized,” Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit stated.

“The beatification of Father Solanus will be a tremendous blessing for the whole community of southeast Michigan, an opportunity for all of us to experience the love of Jesus Christ.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Octavio Duran

By Rhina Guidos

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As El Salvador's first cardinal receives his red hat June 28 at the Vatican, he will have the eyes of his flock at home but also of the Washington area, home to approximately 260,000 Salvadorans -- one of the largest communities of Salvadorans outside of the Central American nation.

Cardinal-designate Gregorio Rosa Chavez has been a pastor, not just inside El Salvador, said Capuchin Franciscan Father Moises Villalta.

For years, he has frequently visited Salvadorans abroad, including many who were forced to flee their native country during its civil conflict from the late 1970s until the early 1990s, said Father Villalta, a native of El Salvador and pastor at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington. He has tried to learn about the diaspora and even spent time teaching some expats and their children El Salvador's national popular spiritual hymn, which is an ode to Christ as "savior of the world."

"He has come (to the United States) to listen, to strengthen our faith ' to be a pastor and representative of the Salvadoran church for those of us who live abroad. ' He has known how to guide us," said Father Villalta, who, like many of his Salvadoran parishioners, fled El Salvador during the war..

The priest is serving as the cardinal-designate's personal secretary during the consistory at the Vatican, or formal meeting of the College of Cardinals meeting, that will yield El Salvador's first cardinal and four other new cardinals for the church.

Salvadorans in Washington's Catholic circles were happy and in awe when they heard in the early morning May 21 the news via social media that the man who has often visited them would be named a cardinal, said Father Villalta.

"You could feel the joy of the Salvadoran community in the exterior," he told Catholic News Service. "It was such a great honor. At Mass, you could tell in people's faces ' the pride."

And El Salvador needs good news. In 2016, it was named the world's most deadly country outside a war zone because of its homicide rate, with rampant gangs terrorizing the citizenry, driving many to seek refuge abroad. Even before gangs were a problem, the country's citizens suffered during a 12-year civil conflict that included the 1980 assassination of the country's Archbishop Oscar Romero, a friend and mentor of the cardinal-designate.

Trinitarian Father Juan J. Molina, director of the U.S. bishops' Office for the Church in Latin America, said in naming as a cardinal the man who for many years has served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the church recognizes his fidelity to the Gospel but also singles out an example of justice and solidarity that Cardinal-designate Rosa Chavez expressed in his loyalty to the memory of Blessed Oscar Romero.

"He did so in a time when that was not appreciated ' and did it at a personal cost. For the Salvadoran diaspora, that's very important," said Father Molina, who is originally from El Salvador. "We cannot leave behind the ideals of the Gospel wherever we are just because we want to be accepted and recognized."

Sonia Marlene Aquino, a Catholic Salvadoran living in Washington, said the cardinal-designate has set an example, not just for Salvadorans but for the rest of the church. However, there is a certain degree of pride that such a "testimony of love" comes from her native country, she said.

"His humility is like the fertile land in our beloved El Salvador," she said. "Good fruit has been obtained through his prayers, perseverance and love for the people. His works, especially toward those who are most in need and marginalized, are testimony to what Jesus asks of each of us."

During the country's sufferings, including the war, natural disasters, and now the gang problems, he has known how to stay calm and close to the suffering of his flock, said Aquino.

Some of that suffering is reflected in the new cardinal's coat of arms, which features a palm frond as a symbol of the Salvadoran church's persecution and martyrdom, a hand grabbing another hand, a symbol of the church's option for the poor, and a sprig of rosemary because in Spanish "Romero," the last name of the slain archbishop, means rosemary.

His motto is "Christ is our peace," and peace is something the new cardinal stands for at a critical time in El Salvador, said Father Villalta.

"The Salvadoran society very much needs a conciliatory person who helps the different factions to reconcile and to forgive, " he said. "It's not just a slogan, but he really is a person who has peace and can bring forth peace. ... There is a lot of talk about peace in El Salvador, but in reality, we do not have it."

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Follow Guidos on Twitter: @CNS_Rhina.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinals are not called to be "princes" of the church, but to serve the people of God and tackle the sins of the world, Pope Francis told five new cardinals.

Jesus "calls you to serve like him and with him, to serve the father and your brothers and sisters," the pope said as he created five new cardinals from five nations June 28.

The new cardinals created during the prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica were: Cardinals Jean Zerbo of Bamako, Mali, 73; Juan Jose Omella of Barcelona, Spain, 71; Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, 67; Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Pakse, Laos, 73; and Gregorio Rosa Chavez, 74, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, El Salvador.

After reciting the Creed and taking an oath of fidelity to Pope Francis and his successors, each cardinal -- in his new red robes -- went up to Pope Francis and knelt before him. The pope gave them each a cardinal's ring, a red skullcap and a red three-cornered red hat. The crimson hue the cardinals wear is a reminder that they must be courageous and faithful to Christ, his church and the pope to the point of shedding blood, if necessary.

They also received a scroll attesting to their appointment as cardinals and containing the name of their "titular church" in Rome. The assignment of a church is a sign they now are members of the clergy of the pope's diocese.

After the consistory, Pope Francis and the new cardinals visited retired Pope Benedict XVI in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, his residence in the Vatican gardens.

The Gospel reading at the consistory was St. Mark's account of James' and John's pride and ambition to have a position of power and be honored, and how the other disciples reacted with angry jealousy (Mk 10:32-45).

Jesus corrects his disciples, explaining that pagan leaders are the ones who lord their authority over their people, and "it shall not be so among you." The pope said the cardinals, as leaders like Christ, are there to be slaves and serve others.

The Gospel reading, he said, shows how Jesus asked his disciples to "look at reality, not let yourselves be distracted by other interests or prospects."

The reality is always the cross, he said, and the sins the cardinals must face today include: "the innocent who suffer and die as victims of war and terrorism; the forms of enslavement that continue to violate human dignity even in the age of human rights; the refugee camps, which at times seem more like a hell than a purgatory; the systematic discarding of all that is no longer useful, people included."

Jesus "has not called you to become 'princes' of the church, to 'sit at his right or at his left,'" the pope told the new cardinals. "He calls you to serve like him and with him."

The evening before he was to enter the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Arborelius had just picked up his new red vestments, but had not had a chance to try them on. "I hope they will fit," he said.

The Swedish cardinal told Catholic News Service that about 450 people from Sweden had planned to travel to Rome for the consistory, including the leaders of the Lutheran, Syrian Orthodox and Baptist churches in Sweden. The Catholic contingent included a large group of Chaldean Catholics who emigrated from Iraq to Sweden. But, he said, there also was a big group of Salvadorans living in Sweden who were traveling to Rome to celebrate the red hat of Cardinal Rosa Chavez.

The Salvadoran auxiliary bishop was a friend of and mentored by Blessed Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980. The new cardinal's loyalty to the memory of the Blessed Romero and to the memory of his country's sufferings is reflected in his coat of arms, which features a sprig of rosemary because in Spanish "Romero" also means rosemary, a palm frond as a symbol of the Salvadoran church's persecution and martyrdom, and a hand grabbing another hand, a symbol of the church's option for the poor.

When Cardinal Omella was asked how his life would change as a cardinal, he told reporters, "I think the tree is already fully grown. I will hardly change, I will be the same person."

"I don't see the cardinalate as major upgrade, of importance or climbing up to some honorable position," he said. "What is asked of me now is a greater service to the church, but in the way taught by Pope Francis, who goes to wash the feet of prisoners."

Serving the people of God and society, Spain's new cardinal said, "demands dying to one's self; it is difficult to be available every day, but it must be done with generosity."

Cardinal Ling experienced persecution first hand. After Laos became a communist nation, he set off -- without government permission -- to preach the Gospel in small villages and in prisons, according to his Vatican biography. He was arrested in 1984 and accused of "making propaganda for Jesus."

The new cardinal was imprisoned for three years, "with chains on my arms and my legs," he said.

But being a prisoner was "an apostolate," he said. "My presence (in prison) was necessary for my conversion and purification and also for that of others."

At the end of the consistory, the College of Cardinals had 225 members, 121 of whom are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a pope.

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Contributing to this story were Cindy Wooden and Junno Arocho Esteves in Rome, and Rhina Guidos in Washington.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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