Bl. Odoardo Focherini and Honestia

A.M.D.G.

I store all periodicals in chronological order in a pretty wooden magazine rack in the kitchen so I can snatch a few articles when I read at breakfast or other brief, quiet moments. You can see by the below article being two months old that I am typically very behind in the news. (We are all called to accept poverty, and one of the forms of poverty for a mother of many little ones is poverty of time.)

I want to share this modest little article as a reminder to those of us leading basically very quiet lives at home that we may still be called to a visible heroic virtue. We are all called to heroic virtue. Most of that time it is going to be hidden. Most of the time it is going to occur in "small" moments--like reading a book to the toddler who is requesting it instead of escaping one's reality to go into cyberspace, or committing to being home to cook simple, homemade meals instead of signing up for too many "enriching" activities for one's particular family. But sometimes we will be called to visibly heroic virtue.

When Mr. Focherini asked for his wife's blessing to start helping Jews escape the Nazis, he had to have known that the consequence ultimately would be never seeing his seven children again (the most painful earthly result I can imagine)--but he did what was right. Mrs. Focherini had to anticipate that giving her blessing would likely mean being widowed and left to financially support and raise seven children alone during wartime--but she said 'yes.'

I just learned a new vocabulary word today and I pardon if it isn't spelled correctly: the virtue of honestia (Latin) is doing the more virtuous act at every choice (aka "doing the right thing always"). Honestia is the first virtue to be corrupted and the last virtue to be perfected. This provides much meditation.


Church To Beatify . . . Father Of Seven Who Saved 100 Lives
By ESTEFANIA AGUIRRE

Source: The Wanderer (June 20, 2013)

ROME (CNA/EWTN News) —
Odoardo Focherini will be beatified in the Italian city of Carpi on June 15 for his life of faith and dedication to helping those in need, including 100 Jews he helped to escape the Nazis. “One of the Jews whom he saved said, ‘We are the miracles of Odoardo Focherini,’ and they saw him as their savior and angel,” said Focherini’s grandson, Francesco Manicardi. “His neighbors weren’t just Jews, but also his family, of which
there are now 21 great-grandsons,” he added during a June 4 Vatican Radio press conference. Focherini, an Italian journalist and father of seven children, died at age 37 in the Hersbruck Nazi concentration camp in 1944, after a wound in his leg became infected. On Saturday, June 15, he will also be beatified, the step before being recognized as a saint, for having managed his work and family life as an exemplary Catholic.
Focherini married Maria Marchesi in 1930, and by 1943 they had seven children. During those years, Focherini helped organize important diocesan events, such as eucharistic congresses, and in 1939 he became
the managing director of L’Avvenire d’Italia, a Catholic newspaper. He first started helping Jews flee
the Nazi persecution in 1942, but his large-scale effort did not begin until September 8, 1943, when he
asked his wife’s permission to help provide false identity cards so that the Jewish refugees could cross the
Italian-Swiss border. Bishop Francesco Cavina of Carpi, who also attended the press conference,
underlined that the beatification “isn’t a fruit of speculation.” According to the bishop, Focherini showed “no separation between his spiritual and family life.” “He is a complete man because work, family, apostolate in the Church have been his path to beatification,” he stated. “He let himself be transformed by Jesus Christ until he, like Him, died.” The postulator of his cause, Franciscan Fr. Giovangiuseppe Califano, reported that extensive studies clearly showed that his persecutors acted “in odium fidei,” or “in hatred of the faith.”
“The proofs are those [things] he himself revealed [in his writings]: that there was an anti-Catholic
tone by his interrogators in his first interrogation,” said the Franciscan. “There was an intention to suppress
a Catholic activist,” said Fr. Califano. According to the postulator, Focherini never uttered “a word of
hatred against his persecutors.” “We can attribute to him, not only the crown of faith, but also the crown of charity.” He will be beatified in a Mass held at 9:30 a.m. on June 15 in Carpi. Organizers are expecting
4,000 people and about 20 bishops to attend the ceremony.