Holy Certifies Diocesan Inquiry into Fr. Luis Bolla's Cause

Holy See Certifies Diocesan Inquiry into the Cause of Fr. Luis Bolla

(ANS – Vatican City – February 6, 2026) – On February 6, the anniversary of the Servant of God Luis Bolla’s entry into heaven, a communique was sent to the postulator general for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, stating that the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, in its session on January 14 had given legal validity to the diocesan inquiry for the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Luigi Bolla, professed priest of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco. Fr. Bolla, born at Schio, Italy, August 11, 1932, was a missionary among the Shuar and Achuar Indians of Ecuador and Peru. He died at Lima, Peru, February 6, 2013. The Vatican certification verifies the formal procedures and the consistency of the evidence gathered at Lima: number and quality of witnesses, documents collected.

The postulator general emphasizes that “this is a great achievement, the result of the passionate and competent work of the members of the diocesan tribunal in Lima and all those who contributed, in particular the historical commission, the theological censors, and the vice postulator, Fr. Jesus Adrian Jurado Alarcon, SDB.”

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints will now be asked to appoint a rapporteur to guide the preparation of the Positio super virtutibus of the Servant of God.

The diocesan inquiry took place at the archiepiscopal chancery in Lima from September 27, 2021, to May 30, 2025.

The life of Fr. Luis Bolla (Father Yankuam’) among the Shuar and Achuar peoples teaches us that mission is not “doing something” but choosing to “be there,” allowing oneself to be profoundly transformed by the encounter with those to whom the mission is directed. He knew how to realize God’s dream for him: in 1943 and 1944, at the age of 11 and 12, the young oratory boy in Schio, Luis Bolla, heard the voice of Jesus (he was certain of it), indicating his plan: “You will be a missionary in the jungle among the indigenous people, and you will bring them my Word. You will walk a great deal on foot in the jungle....” And all this came true between 1953 and 2013.