Validity of Diocesan Inquiry into Cause of Fr. Rudolph Lunkenbein and Simon Bororo

Validity of Diocesan Inquiry into Cause of Servants of God Fr. Rudolph Lunkenbein and Simon Bororo

(ANS – Vatican City – December 31, 2020) – The Congregation for the Causes of Saints in its 0rdinary session of December 16 ruled that the Acts of the diocesan inquiry into the cause of the Servants of God Fr. Rudolph Lunkenbein, SDB, and Simon Christian Koge Kudugodu, known as Simon Bororo, was carried out correctly and validly. The diocesan investigation into their lives and martyrdom and on their reputation as martyrs was done from 2018 to 2020 in the diocese of Barra do Garças, Brazil.

The Vatican document was signed by the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro. It confirms that the testimony and documentary proofs have been collected according to the established norms.

Commenting on the document, the Salesian postulator general, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, underscored that “this is a great milestone, the result of the work carried out with passion and competence in the diocesan phase. A special thanks goes to the members of the diocesan tribunal, to the vice postulator Fr. Paulo Jacomo Eduardo, and to Fr. João Bosco Maciel for their generous dedication, and to Dr. Lodovica Maria Zanet of the postulator’s office in Romefor her constant and qualified collaboration.”

Fr. Gildasio Dos Santos Mendes, general councilor of the Salesians for communications since March 2020, supported with determination the martyrs’ cause in his previous capacity as provincial of the Campo Grande Province. He expresses his joy as follows: “This news, which arrived at Christmas time, is a special gift for the whole Church, the Salesian Family, and indigenous peoples from all over the world. It is also an invitation to continue praying for the good outcome of the cause itself, and a stimulus for all of us to live our vocation in following Christ with hope, in fidelity to Don Bosco our father, who taught us by his example, that holiness is the main goal of our life.”

Now the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will proceed with the appointment of the relator and an external collaborator for the preparation of the “Positio super martyrio,” that is the volume that presents and examines the lives, the material, and the formal martyrdom of the Servants of God and their reputation of martyrdom.