Pope: May the apostolic zeal of Blessed Fr. Moisés encourage priests

By Alessandro Di Bussolo

Remembering Blessed Father Moisés Lira Serafín (1893-1950), founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate, Pope Francis described him as a priest who dedicated his life to helping people grow in faith and love of God. He prayed that his witness and apostolic zeal “may encourage priests to give themselves without reserve, for the spiritual good of the holy people of God.”

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on Saturday, September 14. In his homily, he recalled the life of the Mexican priest who lived in the first half of the last century, saying that he reflected “the image of Christ the Son, meek and humble,” and that he also helped “the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate, guiding them on the path of spiritual childhood.” He was known as a great spiritual director and confessor.

Imitating Jesus in Humility

Referring to the passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus invites the disciples to become like children in order to be “the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven,” the cardinal recalled that it was necessary to follow “Jesus who was meek and humble of heart.” And this, he stressed, was one of the characteristics of the new blessed born in 1893 in the region of Puebla. In 1934, he founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate with the mission of helping people live as children loved by God. He died in 1950 in Mexico City.

Confessor and spiritual father

Cardinal Semeraro also recalled the “special charisma of Blessed Father Moisés for spiritual direction”, as confessor, six to eight hours a day, but also “to accompany so many people, whom he also guided in their life choices”. He recalled how “he instilled peace, trust in God, security in hearts. He did not lower, but elevate the spirit, it was said of him, and this is a very present need in the Church today”.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The cardinal entrusted all these intentions to Our Lady of Guadalupe “so loved and venerated” in the shrine of this city. He recalled the words of Pope Francis, on December 12, 2022, during the Mass of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when he said that we are living in difficult times, marked by war, increasing injustice, famine, poverty and suffering. But the faith and love of God teach us that it is also a time conducive to salvation, in which the Lord, through the Virgin Mary, invites us to go to meet our brothers and sisters forgotten and rejected in our consumerist and insensitive world. In all this, concluded Cardinal Semeraro, “the example and intercession of Blessed Moisés” can also help us.

The tomb of Father Moisés Lira Serafin in the Templo Expiatorio Nacional de San Felipe de Jesús, Mexico City

Miracle for beatification

The intercession of Father Moisés Lira Serafín is attributed to the miraculous healing of a pregnant woman, Rosa María Ramírez Mendoza, who discovered at 22 weeks that she suffered from a very serious fetal anomaly. She refused to terminate her pregnancy, as the doctors suggested, and entrusted her situation with faith to Father Moisés, whose book on her priestly vocation she was reading at the time, invoking him for nine consecutive days for her healing. During a check-up in the sixth month of pregnancy, the doctor, to her great surprise, announced that the anomaly had disappeared and that the fetus was healthy. On September 6, 2004, Rosa María gave birth to Lissette Sarahí, a perfectly healthy baby girl. Father Moisés is buried today at the National Expiatory Temple of San Felipe de Jesús in Mexico City, the place he helped found and where he served in the 1930s.