On September 5th, twenty years ago, in Loreto in the Montorso plain, Pope John Paul II, today a Saint, in what would be his last journey, proclaimed three new Blessed of Catholic Action, Pina Suriano, Alberto Marvelli and Pere Tarrés i Claret on the occasion of the national meeting of Catholic Action Italy and the Assembly of the International Forum of AC: an immense crowd of almost two hundred thousand participants celebrating this moment of grace for AC and for the whole Church.

A memory that remained alive in the hearts of those who participated.

Fernea Codruta Today, the National President of AC Romania remembers this moment: “It was an event that it changed my life. I was 22 years old and it was the first time that I was participating in an international event of such magnitude. The memories of the Montorso plain, filled with the faces of thousands of people, of the prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, of the arrival of Pope John Paul II and of the beatification of Pina Suriano, Alberto Marvelli and Pere Tarrés i Claret, are still alive in my heart. These lay people and priests of Catholic Action are a model of holiness for every lay person actively engaged in the apostolate. I recall in particular the homily of the Holy Father who emphasized that "the Gospel is a word of hope and salvation for the entire world".

Not only the event, but also the preparation is alive in the memory of Silvia Correale, postulator of the Venerable Servant of God Pere Tarrés i Claret “The days spent preparing for the beatification were full of work but I remember a work that leaves in the soul and in the heart serenity and joy because it is full of ecclesial meaning, "breathing" the universal Church that unites and relaunches the missionary spirit. I am left with the vision of a joyful Association, committed, which even today walk in Easter hope with serenity and awareness of missionary synodality because together with adults, young people, priests, assistants and bishops we experienced that world meeting with the beatification of an assistant and two lay faithful of AC, presided over by Pope Saint John Paul II who decided what would be his last trip ... to the Marian sanctuary of Loreto, thus also underlining his love for Mary, "totus tuus".

To outline the profile of these three blesseds there is nothing better than the homily of Saint John Paul II:

Pedro Tarres and Claret, first a doctor and then a priest, he dedicated himself to the lay apostolate among the young people of Catholic Action in Barcelona, ​​of which he later became a counselor. In the practice of the medical profession, he dedicated himself with special solicitude to the poorest sick, convinced that "the sick person is a symbol of the suffering Christ".

Alberto Marvelli, a strong and free young man, a generous son of the Church of Rimini and of Catholic Action, conceived his entire short life of just 28 years as a gift of love to Jesus for the good of his brothers. … In the difficult period of the Second World War, which sowed death and multiplied violence and atrocious suffering, Blessed Alberto nourished an intense spiritual life, from which sprang that love for Jesus that led him to constantly forget himself to take on the cross of the poor.

Pina Suriano – a native of Partinico, in the diocese of Monreale – loved Jesus with such an ardent and faithful love that she could write in all sincerity: “I do nothing but live for Jesus”. … She joined the Catholic Action Women's Youth as a young girl, of which she was later a parish leader, finding in the Association important stimuli for human and cultural growth in an intense climate of fraternal friendship. She gradually developed a simple and firm will to deliver her young life to God as an offering of love, in particular for the sanctification and perseverance of priests.

On the 20th anniversary of the Beatification of Blessed Pina Suriano, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, will preside over the pontifical mass on Thursday 5 September, at 17 pm in Monreale Cathedral.

By Samar Messayeh