Diocesan Phase of Fr. Silvio Galli's Cause Concludes

Diocesan Phase of the Cause of Fr. Silvio Galli, SDB, Concludes

(ANS – Chiari, Italy – June 9, 2022) – On Sunday, June 12, tenth anniversary of the birth to Heaven of the Servant of God Fr. Silvio Galli, SDB, the diocesan inquiry into the life, virtues, and reputation for holiness of the Servant of God will officially conclude in Chiari. Fr. Galli was born at Palazzolo Milanese, Sept. 10, 1927, and died in Chiari, June 12, 2012. After the necessary preliminary acts, the inquiry opened in Chiari Cathedral on Oct. 11, 2020. It represents a first, fundamental stage in the cause of Fr. Galli’s beatification and canonization.

For this important date, the Salesian General Postulation, in agreement with the Salesians and the local Church, prepared a triduum of events:

On Friday, June 10, a prayer cenacle for the cause of Fr. Galli was held at the Salesian institute San Bernardino in Chiari, animated by Fr. Pier Luigi Cameroni, postulator general for the Causes of saints of the Salesian Family.

On Saturday, June 11, also at the Salesian institute in Chiari, an outreach meeting on the figure of the Servant of God took place, entitled: “The Spirit Makes Saints: The path of Fr. Silvio Galli’s cause for Canonization.” Dr. Lodovica Maria Zanet, collaborator of the Salesian General Postulation, spoke.

Finally, on Sunday, June 12, again at the San Bernardino Institute, the fundamental act took place, the closing session of the diocesan inquiry. The bishop of Brescia, Pierantonio Tremolada, presided over the Eucharist, and Fr. Angel Fernández Artime offered closing words.

The celebration can be watched in live streaming on the YouTube channel of the diocesan weekly of Brescia, “La Voce del Popolo.“ 

If one imagines a cause as a “heart” (with diastole in which blood is collected in the cardiac cavities, and systole in which it is pumped and thus released into the bloodstream), one can think of the diocesan inquest as the “diastole” moment because it is first and foremost in charge of collecting documentary and testimonial evidence. At the end of the diocesan inquiry, such evidence is taken to Rome to be studied and finalized: thus begins the “Roman Phase,” in which first the Congregation for the Causes of Saints studies the juridical validity of the procedural Acts of the diocesan inquiry; then, the Postulation, under the guidance of a Vatican “relator,” demonstrates the heroic virtues of Fr. Silvio’s life by writing a full-bodied and articulate treatment, the “Positio.” One can thus think of the “Roman Phase” as the moment of “systole,” in which what is collected in the diocese is “entered” there where the Church itself demonstrates and evaluates the holiness of its Servants of God.

The “Positio,” in fact, once presented in the Vatican, will first be voted on by a group of theological consultors of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; then, by a group of cardinals and bishops of the Congregation itself, thanks in particular to its presentation by a “cardinal prefect.” The Postulation stands ready, at each step, to respond to any objections, integrate, clarify.

If the process concludes positively, the Pope can then, upon the proposal of the cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, grant that the decree of Venerability of Fr. Silvio Galli be promulgated; he will then become a “Venerable” Servant of God.