Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Friday, 01/23/2015, Gaudium Press) During the Feast of Saint Sebastian in Rio de Janeiro the beatification process of Guido Schaffer, a physician who became a seminarian and died on May 1, 2009, started in the Parish of Our Lady of Peace in Ipanema, where the young religious used to be a parishioner.
Before the day of the ceremony, the body was exhumed, on January 12, at St. John the Baptist Cemetery, in Botafogo, where he was buried.
The Ecclesiastical Court established to further the research about the life and virtues of Guido Schaffer was conducted last January 17, in the Basilica Immaculate Conception, in Botafogo.
From the Vatican, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, wrote a letter to be read at the event, giving the “nihil obstat ” (nothing stands in the way) for the beginning of the process, thus giving to the seminarian the title of Servant of God.
The second part of the procedure, which is the canonical recognition of the remains of Guido Schaffer, took place on Tuesday, January 20, in the Parish of San Sebastian, in Tijuca, in a Mass presided by the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal Orani João Tempesta.
Soon after, the body of the Servant of God, in a car from the fire department, was taken in a precession to the Church of Our Lady of Peace in Ipanema.
There the parish priest, Monsignor Manuel Moreira Vieira, celebrated a Mass, while waiting for the procession to arrive.
Cardinal Tempesta told the audience at the ceremony that “the fact (of his death) is tragic, but when we look at the facts carefully, we see the signs of the presence of God. Rio has many natural beauties, but few know the saints who live here, they also contribute for the beauty of our city.”
Also on the same day, another holy woman was declared Servant of God, Odette Vidal de Oliveira.
Now the documents compiled by the Ecclesiastical Court of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, will be sent to the Vatican. After analysis by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, he will be declared “Venerable”. (LMI)
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