c. 2004 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II has caused controversy with his beatification of a mystic nun whose graphic visions of the Crucifixion inspired Mel Gibson’s movie about the final hours of Christ’s life.
The pope also beatified the last Habsburg to rule the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even though his actions in World War I have been questioned for years.
Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich and Emperor Karl I were among five candidates for canonization whom John Paul declared blessed Sunday (Oct. 3) at a Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Beatification is the last step before sainthood.
The pope has now beatified 1,338 people, more than all his predecessors together.
Critics of the new beatifications contended that the visions of the German Emmerich, a 19th century Augustinian nun, fueled anti-Semitism. They accused Karl I of serious character flaws and of permitting Austrian troops to use mustard gas during World War I.
Only about 20,000 pilgrims attended the Mass in the square, which can hold more than 100,000, but among them were the four surviving sons of Karl I, led by 91-year-old Otto von Habsburg, some 300 other Habsburgs, Queen Fabiola of Belgium, Princess Caroline of Monaco, the grand dukes of Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, Italy’s former royal family and assorted other European royalty.
As the pope, resplendent in green vestments, proclaimed each new blessed, their images in huge portraits were unveiled on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica. Proof that they have been responsible for a miracle will be needed for sainthood.
The frail, 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, appeared tired and had trouble reading his 11/2-page homily. He left the main sections in French, Spanish and German to be read by aides.
Because of his weakness, John Paul presided over the Mass, but the celebrant was Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Emmerich, who died in 1824 at the age of 50 after many years of illness, is known primarily for her book “The Dolorous Passion,” on which Gibson based much of his recent biblical blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ.”
But the Vatican excluded her visions as grounds for beatification because of the “unreliability” of their transcription by Clemens Brentano, a German Romantic poet who served as her secretary, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said.
Instead, Emmerich, bedridden for the last 11 years of her life, was cited for her “heroic suffering,” her “patience in bearing the weakness of the body” and her “firmness in faith.”
Karl I was described as “a friend of peace” and the only leader to support the “peace initiatives” of Pope Benedict XV during World War I. “May he be a model for those in Europe who have political responsibility,” the pope said.
It was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, which touched off World War I, that brought Karl I to the throne. He reigned from 1916 until 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved, and he died of pneumonia in exile and poverty on the island of Madeira in 1922 at the age of 35.
Opponents of his beatification described him as a weak and incompetent ruler and a womanizer who overindulged in drink. Defending him at a Vatican news conference last week, Italian Catholic historian Piero Borzomati said these were rumors circulated by Freemasons as part of a plot to bring down the empire.
“He was the first European ruler to create a ministry of health and social support. He raised minimum wages and introduced pensions,” his grandson Lorenzo said.
The other new blesseds are two French priests, Pierre Vigne (1670-1740), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament, and Joseph-Marie Cassant (1887-1903), a member of the Reformed Cistercian Order; and an Italian nun, Maria Ludovica De Angelis (1880-1962), a member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy of Savona who worked among the sick in Argentina for 50 years.
MO/PH END RNS
