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President To Attend Canonization At The Vatican

Updated: May 31, 2007 05:00 PM GMT
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On June 3 in Rome, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is to attend the canonization of Blessed Marie Eugenie de Jesus, founder of the Religious of the Assumption that runs the school the president attended.

Arroyo is to leave June 2 with relatives and Assumption Convent high school classmates, officials of Malacanang presidential office told reporters June 1.

Arroyo, 60, graduated valedictorian of her high school class of 1964 at Assumption Convent in Makati City, south of Manila, according to her biography in the president´s official website (www.op.gov.ph). Four years later, she graduated magna cum laude from its college with a bachelor´s in economics.

On the canonization day, the president reportedly will have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI before proceeding to Portugal on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, known for its miraculous healings.

On June 3, Pope Benedict will canonize Blessed Eugenie along with Blessed Szymon of Lipnica, a Polish priest of the Order of Friars Minor, and Blessed Charles of St. Andrew, a Dutch priest belonging to the Congregation of the Passion. Pope Paul VI beatified Blessed Eugenie on February 9, 1975.

Born Anne Eugenie Milleret in Metz, France, on Aug. 26, 1817, she chose Marie Eugenie as her Religious name. On April 30, 1839, when she was 22, she and four other women founded the Religious of the Assumption in Paris with a special commitment to the education of women.

When she died on March 10, 1898, Assumption sisters were in six countries, according to the congregation´s website (www.assumptionreligious.org).

The Philippine Assumption´s website (www.assumptionsisters.org) says that about 1,200 Assumption sisters are now serving in 35 countries worldwide.

The 2006-2007 Catholic Directory of the Philippines lists 111 professed Philippine Assumption sisters -- 100 in final vows, 11 in temporary vows, five novices and two postulants. Seventeen Filipina sisters are in foreign missions. The congregation runs 11 schools, 15 independent houses, three retreat houses, one formation house and one house for pastoral ministry.

The Philippine Canonization Committee of Assumption College in Makati organized lectures on Blessed Eugenie´s life and works ahead the canonization. Baby Herrera, the committee co-chair, noted in her May 15 report on the Philippine Assumption site that more than 1,000 pilgrims had registered with the Philippine-Thailand province, to which Arroyo´s former school belongs.

The forthcoming trip to the Vatican is Arroyo´s second. When she first met the Holy Father in June 2006, she told him about the abolition of the death penalty in her country. She gave him a hard-bound copy of Republic Act 9346 abolishing the death penalty in the Philippines and an image of the Nuestra Senora de Guia (Our Lady of the Way).

Malacanang officials have not issued details of the president´s forthcoming meeting with the Holy Father, nor of her itinerary in Portugal.

END

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