Pope Leo XIV Declares Six New Venerables
Missionaries, a spiritual son of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, and a Focolare laywoman moved closer to beatification after decrees promulgated Oct. 24.
On October 24, Pope Leo XIV recognized the heroic virtues of six Servants of God and declared them Venerable. The decrees were promulgated after the Holy Father’s audience with Cardinal Semeraro.
Recognition of heroic virtue is a decisive step on the road to the honors of the altar. Beatification still requires a miracle attributed to each candidate’s intercession. No miracle was cited in the decrees.
Missionary Bishops Across Continents
Among the new Venerables is Friedrich Kaiser Depel, a German-born missionary bishop who served in Peru. Born in 1903 and died in 1993, he founded the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Word and Victim.
Oreste Marengo, a Salesian bishop born in Italy in 1906, devoted his ministry to India. His episcopal service joined the Salesian charism to the Church’s mission on the Asian subcontinent.
Priests, a Capuchin, and a Focolare Laywoman
Two diocesan priests were also advanced. Domenico Pogliani, who lived from 1838 to 1921 in Milan, founded the Holy Family Institute. Alessandro Vitetti served as a priest of the Diocese of Rossano-Cariati.
Capuchin friar Daniele of San Giovanni Rotondo is remembered as a spiritual son of St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Formed in the school of the stigmatized saint, he embodied Capuchin poverty and prayer.
Margarita Bavosi, known as “Luminosa,” was an Argentine consecrated laywoman of the Focolare Movement. Her cause highlights holiness lived in the lay state, in fidelity to a charism of communion and evangelical witness.
The six new Venerables span Germany, Italy, Peru, India, and Argentina—bishops and priests, a religious and a laywoman. Their recognition underscores the Church’s continuous labor in the causes of the saints and the universal call to heroic virtue. For American Catholics, witnesses tied to the Americas and to the missions speak with particular force.
With these decrees, the faithful may invoke the new Venerables with confidence as the Church awaits the signs that may open the way to beatification.