Cardinal Marcello Semerarothe prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saintspresided over the open-air beatification Mass on the evening of June 4 at the Convent of the Cross in Jal el Dib, outside the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
“Humanly, they are victims”, Semeraro said. “They are victims of a wave of hatred that repeatedly swept the last Ottoman Empire and intertwined with the tragic events of the persecution against all the Armenian people and the Christian faith.”
“If humanly, I said, they were victims, in the perspective of the Christian faith, they were victors”, he added.
The cardinal praises Melki and Saleh for their spiritual strength, which he said was manifested in a “passion for truth and love of good even to the point of renunciation and sacrifice of one’s life”.
“Benedict XVI, our pope emeritus, wrote in the encyclical sp salvi that in the truly serious trials of life, especially when it happens that we ourselves have to make the final decision to put the truth ahead of comforts, careers, possessions, we need the certainty of this true and great hope. It is precisely then that “we need witnesses – martyrs – who have given themselves totally, to show us the way – day after day,” he said, quoting Benedict XVI’s letter. encyclical on Christian hope.
“‘We need it if we are to value goodness over comfort, even in the small choices we face every day – knowing that this is how we live life to the fullest.'”
