Positio super Virtutibus of Servant of God Bishop Antonio de Almeida Lustosa
(ANS - Vatican City – April 28, 2021) – On April 27, the volume of the Positio super Vita, Virtutibus et Fama Sanctitatis of the Servant of God Antonio de Almeida Lustosa, SDB, archbishop of Fortaleza, Brazil, was delivered to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Msgr. Maurizio Tagliaferri was the rapporteur
of the Positio, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB, was the postulator,
and Dr. Cristiana Marinelli was the collaborator. The structural elements of
the Positio are: a brief presentation by the rapporteur; the Informatio
super virtutibus, that is, the theological part in which the virtuous life
of the Servant of God is demonstrated; the two Summaria with
the testimonial and documentary evidence; the Biographia ex Documentis;
the final sessions and the iconographic apparatus.
Antônio de Almeida Lustosa was born in São
João del Rei, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on February 11, 1886. From his
parents, João Baptista Pimentel Lustosa and Delphina Eugênia de Almeida
Magalhães, exemplary Christians, he received a good Christian and human formation.
An intelligent boy with a good and generous disposition, at 16 he entered the
Salesian school of Cachoeira do Campo (Minas Gerais); three years later he was at
Lorraine as a novice and assistant to his companions. After his first religious
profession, which took place in 1906, he became a teacher of philosophy,
studying theology in the meantime. His perpetual profession took place three
years later, and on January 28, 1912, he was ordained to the priesthood. In
1916 he was director and master of novices at Lavrinhas in the Colegio São
Manoel. In the five years he spent there, young Fr. Lustosa expressed the best
of himself both as a priest and as a Salesian.
On February 11, 1925, anniversary of the
first apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes, he was ordained bishop of Uberaba, a
day he chose to commemorate the presence of our Lady in his life. In 1928 he
was transferred to Corumbá, in Mato Grosso, and in 1931 he was promoted to archbishop
of Belem do Pará, where he remained for 10 years. On November 5, 1941, he took
up the post of archbishop of Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará.
Among an unusually high number of
initiatives and actions of a social and charitable nature, he created more than
30 new parishes, 45 schools for the needy, 14 health centers on the outskirts
of Fortaleza, the School of Social Services, nowadays affiliated with the State
University del Ceará, the São José and Cura d’Ars hospitals, to mention only
some of the most important works attributed to his episcopate.
His pastoral action was articulated in
particular in the field of catechesis, education, pastoral visits, the increase
of vocations, the enhancement of Catholic action, improvement of the living
conditions of the poorest, the defense of workers’ rights, the renewal of the
clergy, the establishment of new religious orders in Ceará, not to mention his
rich and fruitful activity as a poet and writer. He founded the Institute of
Clergy Cooperators and the Congregation of the Josefinas.
Eleven years after his resignation from the archdiocese, after which he retired to the Salesian house in Carpina, in the diocese of Nazaré, Pernambuco, confined to a wheelchair, he died on August 14, 1974, demonstrating, even during his illness and suffering, an exemplary attitude of full and unconditional acceptance of God’s will.
