Basilio Rueda and Henri Vergés: two of a kind

The anniversary of the death of Basilio Rueda (January 21) in this year of 2019 coincides with the final  preparations being carried out by the diocesan tribunal of Guadalajara (Mexico) to complete diocesan process requested by the Congregation of the Causes for Saints in March 31 2017. The completion consisted in gathering the deposition of 21 more witnesses selected between the clergy and the laity to complete the survey carried out previously. At the moment the tribunal should complete the writing of the records and complete the requirements needed to put an end to the diocesan process before sealing it and sending it to Rome. Once this complete documentation is concluded and delivered to the Congregation of the Causes for Saints it will be added to the one that had already been submitted previously in 2016. The following step in the process will consist of the publication of the ordinance of validity of the diocesan process. Starting from that moment the process will begin in Rome. 

At the same time, while these works were being carried out in Guadalajara (Mexico) we celebrated the beatification of Brother Henri Vergès in Orán on the 8th of December   published in which the correspondence between Brother Henri and Brother Basilio were included. Henri living in Algeria and Basilio running around the world to animate the work of the Marists. These letters share a testimony of fraternity, dialogue and the search for the will of God. They are just a handful of letters. There are few, very few, if we compare them with the hundreds that Basilio wrote and which are kept in the archives in Rome. But they tell us about the process of a shared interior journey. When bringing these two figures together in the  same publication, whose aim was to enhance the feast of the beatification of Brother Henri as well as his 18 martyred partners from Algeria and the figure of Basilio whose proclamation of sanctity carries on amid a turbulent sea of paperwork and tribunals. 

I believe that it can be a beautiful homage on this anniversary, as much for Basilio as for Henri, to study the pages of this book which some will be able to read in the printed edition in French, Spanish or English, or by consulting the digital edition that can be found here: English | Español | Français

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Br. Antonio Martínez Estaún, Postulator General