Romano Guardini’s sainthood cause introduced

Some fascinating news –at least it was fascinating to me– that the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising is preparing to open the Cause of Canonization for Father Romano Guardini, one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. Several groups have developed praying for Guardini’s beatification.

The press is reporting that Reinhard Cardinal Marx is expected to formally open the Cause before the end of the year.

Father Guardini was born in Verona in 1885 and died in Munich on October 1, 1968.

He taught at the University of Berlin, the University of Tübingen and at the University of Munich. Guardini has been called the patron saint of education (or the educator).

Some of Guardini’s major theological contributions:

The Spirit of the Liturgy
The Lord
The End of the Modern World
The Art of Praying
The Inner Life of Jesus
Meditations Before Mass
The Rosary of Our Lady
The Living God
Eternal Life
And the Word Dwelt Among Us.

The popes, including the last two, have relied upon the thinking of Guardini. In the 1980s when Francis was shipped off to Germany by the Jesuits to get him away from Argentina he went to Germany he was to prepare a doctoral dissertation on Guardini but never finished the work. Pope Francis said, “convinced that Guardini is a thinker who has much to say to the people of our time, and not only to Christians”The emeritus pope Benedict stated that Guardini is “a great figure, a Christian interpreter of the world and of his own time”. It is said that Father Guardini was a principal source of influence in Benedict’s writings.

Father Romano Guardini, pray for us.