Beatification of Blessed Mother Maria Ines is Pope's gift to Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 24, 2012 / 11:06 am

Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, praised the life of Mother Maria Ines Teresa, calling her beatification a gift from Pope Benedict to Mexico.

“Today’s beatification is another gift the Holy Father Benedict XVI is making to the Church and to the entire Mexican people. One month ago the Pope came to this noble land, and he was happy to be among you,” Cardinal Amato said.

“With this visit he wanted to reach out to all Mexicans, at home and abroad, to support them and thank them for their fidelity to the Catholic faith and for their love for Christ the King and the Church.”

Cardinal Amato beatified the 20th century nun on Saturday, April 21 in the presence of 12,000 people who filled  the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

During the ceremony, a relic of Mother Maria Ines was carried in procession by Francisco Javier Carrillo Guzman, the twelve year-old boy who experienced the miracle that led to her beatification.

Born in Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit in 1904, Mother Maria went on to found the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church. She died in 1981 but not before she had the chance to meet the late Blessed John Paul II a few months prior.

In his remarks, Cardinal Amato said her beatification “is also a recognition by the Church of a woman who brought to life the best human and spiritual qualities of her people in an exemplary way.”

She exuded “the perfume of holiness, made of profound faith, firm hope and immense charity,” he added.

Cardinal Amato said one of the most striking characteristics of the new blessed was the “perennial smile that adorned her extraordinary virtuous life.” She invited others to always show a smile whenever they felt bothered, even “when it hurt.”