Francesco Spoto (8 July 1924 – 27 December 1964) was an Italian Catholic priest who served in the missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and was killed there. He was also a professed member from the Missionary Servants of the Poor. His beatification was celebrated in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

on 21 April 2007 after Pope Benedict XVI approved the fact that the priest had been killed "in odium fidei" – in hatred of the faith. Cardinal

Salvatore De Giorgi Salvatore De Giorgi (born 6 September 1930) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop of Palermo from 1996 until his retirement in 2006. He was made a cardinal in 1998. He was first made a bishop in 1973 and led other dioc ...

presided over the celebration on the behalf of the pope.

Life

Francesco Spoto was born in

Raffadali Raffadali is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region of Sicily, located about south of Palermo and about northwest of Agrigento. Geography The commune's territory covers an area of around 1.617 hectares ...

in mid-1924 and he was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

on 24 September 1924. His cousin was a priest. Spoto commenced his studies for the priesthood in

in 1936 and he later became a professed member of the Missionary Servants of the Poor. He received his ordination to the priesthood from Cardinal

Ernesto Ruffini Ernesto Ruffini (19 January 1888 – 11 June 1967) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Palermo from 1945 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Biography Ruffini was ...

in the

Palermo Cathedral Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the pre ...

on 22 July 1951. Father Spoto was later elected as the Superior General of his order at its General Chapter in 1959 in a move that surprised him and he later wrote of his shock to a priest cousin. Sporo – in his role as the Superior General – made the petition to see the introduction of the cause for canonization of the order's founder Giacomo Cusmano. He also re-vitalized the order and encouraged vocations. On 4 August 1964 he travelled to Biringi to visit the missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On 3 December 1964 the Simba rebels captured him along with four other missionaries and on 11 December was beaten and tortured until he managed to escape barefoot though later collapsed due to exhaustion; he forgave his killers and offered his life to God. He died due to his injuries on 27 December 1964 after Christmas; the other four missionaries were saved at some stage. His remains were later moved to Palermo on 14 October 1984.

Beatification

The beatification process opened on 5 June 1992 after he was titled as a

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official " nihil obstat" to the cause. The diocesan process spanned from 16 December 1992 until 18 March 1996 and received C.C.S. validation on 20 December 1996 in Rome. The postulation submitted the Positio to Roman officials in 1998. The board of theologians approved the cause on 4 October 2005 while the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. likewise approved it on 4 April 2006. Pope Benedict XVI approved the beatification on 26 June 2006 and delegated Cardinal

to preside over the celebration in the Palermo Cathedral on 21 April 2007. In attendance was the then-Archbishop (now Cardinal) Paolo Romeo and Bishop Marcel Utembi Tapa – of the diocese where Spoto was killed. His beatification was also the first to occur in Palermo. His liturgical feast was affixed to 24 September – the date of his baptism – instead of the date of his death as is the norm. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...

for the cause is Bishop Vincenzo Bertolone.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spoto, Francesco 1924 births 1964 deaths People from Raffadali 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Italian beatified people Italian people murdered abroad People murdered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Roman Catholic missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Italian expatriates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Italian torture victims People of the Congo Crisis 1964 murders in Africa Religious leaders from the Province of Agrigento