http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6681526,00.html
By DANIELA PETROFF
Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI named four new saints Sunday
from France, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland at a ceremony in St.
Peter's Square attended by several heads of state and thousands of
faithful.
The presidents of Ireland, Malta, Poland and the Philippines
attended the canonisation Mass for the three priests and a nun,
whom Benedict praised as models for Catholics to emulate.
"Let us be attracted by their example, let us be guided by their
teachings,'' he told the crowd, which filled St. Peter's Square for
the two-hour Mass despite rain.
Among those honoured was Sister Marie Eugenie de Jesus
Milleret, a French nun who in 1839 founded the Religious of
the Assumption to educate young girls. Today, the order has 1,200
nuns in 170 communities around the world.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo attended the Mass
because a young Philippine child who was diagnosed with severe
brain damage affecting her sight was cured after praying to Sister
Marie Eugenie - the miracle the Vatican needed to canonize the
nun.
The child, who is now 12 and attends an Assumption school in the
Philippines, was present at Sunday's Mass and was part of the
offertory procession bringing gifts up to the pope.
"May the example of St. Marie Eugenie invite men and women of today
to transmit to the young the values that will help them become
strong adults ... May young people not be afraid to welcome these
moral and spiritual values, to live them with patience and
fidelity,'' Benedict said in honoring the new saint.
Benedict also canonized:
- The Rev. George Preca
of Malta, who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine in
1932 as a group of lay people who teach the faith to others.
Maltese President Edward Fenech Adami attended the Mass in honor of
the new saint.
- The Rev. Szymon z
Lipnicy of Poland, a Franciscan monk who comforted Poles
afflicted by the plague that broke out in Krakow from 1482-83 and
died of it himself. Benedict canonized him with Polish President
Lech Kaczynski in attendance as the saint's order, the Franciscan
Friars Minor, celebrated the 800th anniversary of their
founding.
- The Rev. Charles of St.
Andrew, who was born Karel Van Sint Andries Houben in the
Netherlands in 1821. Although he never mastered the English
language, Father Charles spent much of his life in Ireland and
England, where he achieved fame as a miracle worker with thousands
flocking to his monastery outside Dublin to seek his blessing. He
was canonized after the inexplicable cure of a man from his
hometown who was suffering from a painful gangrenous and perforated
appendicitis. Irish President Mary McAleese headed the Irish
delegation attending the Mass.