Pope Leo XIV Declares Six Catholics Venerable on October 24: Heroic Virtue Decrees Include Missionary Bishops and a Spiritual Son of Padre Pio
During an October 24 audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV authorized decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of six Catholics, who were thereby declared Venerable, a step toward possible beatification and canonization, according to an OSV News report published by the Catholic Review on October 26. The six are two missionary bishops, Friedrich Kaiser Depel and Oreste Marengo; Focolare member Margarita Bavosi; Italian priests Domenico Pogliani and Alessandro Vitetti; and Capuchin Brother Daniele of San Giovanni Rotondo.
Kaiser Depel was born on May 24, 1903, in Dulmen, Germany, was ordained a priest on August 10, 1932, and was sent to Peru in April 1939. On November 21, 1957, Pope Pius XII named him the first prelate of Caraveli. After a 1960 earthquake he worked to provide water supplies and rebuild the cathedral, and in 1961 he founded the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Word and Victim. He died in Lima on September 26, 1993, and is recognized as a pioneer of the biblical apostolate in Peru. Marengo was born on August 29, 1906, in Diano d'Alba, Italy, traveled to northeastern India in 1923, was ordained on April 2, 1932, became the first bishop of Dibrugarh in 1951, later served as bishop of Tezpur and apostolic administrator of Tura, and died on July 30, 1998.
Bavosi was born on September 19, 1941, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was nicknamed Luminosa, and died of atypical pulmonary fibrosis on March 7, 1985, at age 43. Pogliani, born in Milan on December 18, 1838, opened a nursery school, an oratory for girls and a care home accommodating 400 people in Cesano Boscone, and died on July 25, 1921. Vitetti, born on October 12, 1915, in Ciro, Calabria, was left blind and deaf by diabetes in his final years and is remembered for the words, I cannot see, I cannot hear, but I believe; he died in Cariati on February 24, 1995. Brother Daniele, born Michele Natale on March 11, 1919, in San Giovanni Rotondo, met St. Pio of Pietrelcina on June 4, 1933, became one of his spiritual sons, and died on July 6, 1994.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：教宗良十四世接见媒体时留影（2025年5月12日）。照片：Edgar Beltrán，The Pillar，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Pope Leo XIV during an audience with the media, May 12, 2025. Photo: Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
