Pope: May example of Blessed Fr. Torres Padilla sustain priests in their ministry

Pope: May example of Blessed Fr. Torres Padilla sustain priests in their ministry

Vatican news

During the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis praises the example of Father José Torres Padilla, co-founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross, beatified yesterday in Seville, Spain, by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro.

By Edoardo Giribaldi

On Sunday, Pope Francis paid tribute to a 19th century Spanish priest, Father José Torres Padilla, whom he recalled “distinguished himself as a priest confessor and spiritual guide, testifying to great charity towards those who were in need. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, beatified Father Torres Padilla on Saturday, November 9 during a celebration in Seville, Spain. The Pope prayed that his example could “support priests in their ministry” as he called for a round of applause from everyone present in the square for the newly beatified.

In his homily for the beatification in the Cathedral of Seville, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro described Father José Torres Padilla in his great generosity, “a sort of payday lender” for his works of free charity. He emphasized that he was “an atypical canon”, having as friends those on the margins of society, getting closer to the needy in the most difficult neighborhoods of Seville, where few dared to enter. And he demonstrated a “deep unity with the Lord,” the main source of his “inner strength.”

Images from Scripture are reflected in life

The prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints drew a parallel between the Spanish priest and a commentary by Isidore of Seville on the text chosen for the liturgy taken from the book of the prophet Ezekiel. “A jet of water flowed under the threshold of the temple”, recalls the Cardinal, then explaining the double meaning of the image: “Baptism, which is the water which quenches and restores all those who are thirsty”, but also “since the prophetic vision speaks of water flowing from the right side of the temple,” a reference “to the open side of the crucified Christ” from which “blood and water flowed.”

“Being contemplative in action”

Such an image, of a torrent “which gives life, renews and produces much fruit, I like to attribute to the new Blessed Father. José Torres Padilla,” said the Cardinal, calling him “an always faithful priest” and “ready to give of himself, to come out of himself to go with charity towards others.” A quality which brought out in the Spanish priest “unity of life” and “contemplative being in action”.

Study, meditation and concrete service

Cardinal Semeraro then described various traits of the Blessed Father. Torres Padilla’s personality, such as his ability to combine prayer and study: “He would spend two hours studying and three hours meditating on what he had studied. But that did not stop him from devoting a lot of time during his life to serving those who needed it most.

On the “bad side” of Seville

A life lived “in poverty” – he only wore a single “patched cassock” – and approached the needy and the sick, often relegated to neighborhoods on the “wrong side” of the Guadalquivir, the river that divides Seville, where “crime” prevailed. However, the Spanish priest went there without any fear, cleaning and repairing their beds in his service.

The tomb of the Blessed Father. Jose Torres Padilla

The tomb of the Blessed Father. Jose Torres Padilla

The example of the new blessed

From the Blessed Father. Torres Padilla, Cardinal Semeraro also recalled his “spiritual leadership”, capable of making known his “reputation for holiness”, to the point of earning him the nickname “El Santero (the Holy Maker)”. Among the beneficiaries of this salutary “contagion” is Saint Angela of the Cross, who founded the Institute of the Sisters of the Cross under the direction of the Spanish priest.

How Holiness Encourages One Another

“Holiness encourages one another,” Cardinal Semeraro concluded. A unity which reflects divine unity and which, reaffirming the words of Pope Francis, is the “matrix of the bond between us Christians” and the “fiery furnace of love” capable of burning “our selfishness, our prejudices, our divisions interior and exterior. » and an experience which is “certainty” of a “final communion with God”.

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