Xaverian Mission Newsletter - 2011: Jan.-Mar.

A New Missionary Saint for the Global Church

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2011 - Jan-Mar
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A New Missionary Saint for the Global Church

Pope Benedict XVI has advanced the sainthood cause of a new and inspirational figure whose sanctity and world vision of faith is so needed in these times. The Church’s newest saint will be Blessed Guido Maria Conforti, founder and father of more than 800 Xaverian Missionaries. The Pope authorized the miracle attributed to Blessed Conforti’s intercession, the second needed to affirm his sainthood.

Bishop Conforti founded the Xaverian Missionaries, who through his guidance helped bring about a renewal of the missionary spirit at the turn of the 20th century. Our missionaries first spearheaded evangelization efforts to China and are now present in 19 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Guido Maria Conforti was Bishop of two major dioceses in Italy, Ravenna and Parma, as well as a missionary for the world. The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that the Church is missionary by her very nature and that the bishops “are consecrated not just for one diocese, but for the salvation of the world.” He sought to fulfill this ideal throughout his life, becoming a model for his own missionaries, the people of his dioceses and the priests and the bishops of the entire Church of God.

Although he dedicated all his energy to caring for his two large and demanding dioceses, he also felt the daily preoccupation and concern for the whole world (2 Cor 11:28). In commemorating the 25th anniversary of Conforti’s death, Cardinal Giuseppe Roncalli, then Patriarch of Venice and the future Pope John XXIII, defined him well as the Bishop of Parma, but a Missionary for the entire world.

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