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News and Information about Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá

Ceferino Namuncurá was Beatified on November 11, 2007. As a homage to him and his example of holiness for all the youth of Don Bosco worldwide, the young people of Asia, the boys of Don Bosco, wanted to pay a homage to him, his memory and his life as a model for all of us. If you have made any Webpage in your language about Ceferino, please send us the link to put it in this Portal. Also we welcome news, information, ceremonies done about Ceferino and places with his name.

We take our information from the Official Site of Ceferino Namuncurá in Spanish. The composition of our English as the most simple as possible, so it could be useful for translators to do their job in our Asian languages.

Chimpay, Argentina. Ceferino Namuncurá is the first South American aborigine to be beatified and his ceremony was also the first beatification done out of the Vatican and in the same land of the blessed. Many people participated in the Catholic celebration in Champay City, Argentina, many of them belonging to the Mapuche, the people to which belongs Ceferino. The decree of the beatification was read by Mgrs Tarsicio Bertone in Spanish and in Mapuche language.

Calisto, a representative of the Mapuche people, said to a multitude of more than 6 thousand persons: "¡Marimari peñi, Marimari huinca!". "¡Hello Mapuche brothers, hello white brothers!"

1. The "Ceferino Phenomenon".

Ceferino Namuncurá has been a gift of God. A precious and free gift of God for his aboriginal, forgotten and suffered race, for his homeland, Argentina, for Latin America, for all the world. As it happened with many Biblical characters, the Lord saw with goodness the humbleness of the aboriginal Mapuche and He wanted to do by his mediation great things.

Picture of the ceremony of the beatification by AFP

Ceferino was born in 1886 when his father, Manuel Namuncurá, maximum Araucan leader ("Cacique" in South America), was already pacified by the national army. And Ceferino was born in a moment of our history, during the Illustration, the science without God that was looking for followers in our well known progressive Generation of the 80s. These are things of God, from His plans - no from human plans - and His fecund and free Grace: "He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly." (Luke 1: 51-52.)

Without doubt and easy to prove in any latitude, there is in our country since some years ago, what it is called the "Ceferino Phenomenon". People speak about him, want to know him, he is invocated, they bring his medal or his portrait, his image is everywhere. He has more fans than Boca or River, more admirers than Carlos Gardel or Difunta Correa... He came into his people and enjoys the prestigious of a symbol. He gives graces and works "miracles" in abundance...

It is also true than in many times his name and his protection is associated with elements of magic, superstition and fetishism. But there is not doubt that our good Ceferino has become a surprising spiritual and consolatory phenomenon during the last decades and that he has broken records very fast and with much popularity.

We have to ask: Would be this sudden "Phenomenon" only a popular fashion, just superstition, ignorance, just expression of a popular religiosity with not sense? Surely there are also deviations that the Church must purify and make clear. But in all of this there is also the hand of God, giving purity and strength. The Catholic Church, through her highest and specialized organisms, is studying the life of Ceferino since 1945, carefully and with dedication, as it is common in Rome. On June 1972 the Holy Father Paul VI promulgated the Decree in which He declared Ceferino as a Venerable, a very important step for his Beatification.

Biography

Ceferino Namuncurá was born in Chimpay, Rio Negro Province, Argentina, on August 26, 1886 and he was baptized two years later by the Apostle of the Indigenous people, the Salesian Missionary Father Domingo Milanesio.

He was the son of the famous Araucan Chief (Cacique in South America), Manuel Namuncurá (after he would receive the title of Colonel by the Argentinean goverment) and he was called the "King of the Pampa" by the indigenous peoples. The initially name was Morales, but his changed it to "Ceferino." When the boy was 11, Manuel decided that his son should study in Buenos Aires to be able to help his people, the Mapuches.

His mother, Rosario, a young woman from Chile, used to say: "Ceferino, since he was very small, used to think as a grown man already." Thanks to the help of Mgr Cagliero, the boy was accepted in the Pio IX Salesian College in Buenos Aires. He received there his First Communion on September 8, 1898. Since then, he became an angel of love to Jesus and to Mary.

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Studying the Catechism, he dreamt to be a missionary of his people that was living in the mountains.

Problems of health made him to move from Buenos Aires to Viedma where he continued his studies with much dedication getting the admiration of many for his virtues.

In 1904 he was brought to Turin and Rome by Mgr Cagliero, Bishop of the Patagonia and later Cardinal.

In the Italian schools, Ceferino was surprising for companions and teachers for his admirable behavior, his deep pity and his life as a model of virtues. Especially in his long sickness was proven his holiness. Witnesses in the "Fatebenefratelli" Hospital said that Ceferino never lamented, asked nothing and was helpful to others, giving courage and consolation.

Cerefeino returned to the House of the Father during the morning of May 11, 1905, when he was only 18 years and 9 months old. His salm was buried in Rome, but in 1924 was brought back to Argentina and placed in a small chapel in Fortín Mercedes, but after moved to the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians in that city.

An intercession prayer translated from Spanish

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your Grace of calling to the life and to the Faith, the Mapuche Ceferino, son of the original peoples of South America.

He, feeding himself with the Bread of Life, knew how to answer, with all his heart, living as a disciple and willing to be a missionary, to your Kingdom.

He wanted to be useful to his people embracing the Gospel and taking everyday of his life the Cross to follow You in the humble facts of the life.

We ask you through his intercession to remember all of us who do our pilgrimage in this world.

(We ask in silence our intentions)

May we can also learn from him: his decided love for the family and for the land, his joyful and generous service to his neighbors, his spirit of reconciliation and communion, in that way we can celebrate together with him and all the saints, the Eternal Easter in the Heavens. Amen.

Rector Mayor

5/11/2007 - RMG – Expression of the fruit of Salesian youth spirituality

(ANS – Rome) – As the beatification of Zeffirino Namuncurà approaches, the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Pascual Chávez, has sent a message to all the members of the Salesian Family.

Recalling the recent event of the beatification of the 498 Spanish martyrs of whom 63 are from the Salesian Family, the Rector Major introduces the young Mapuche and briefly presents a biographical and spiritual profile. “The holiness of Zefferino is the expression and the fruit of Salesian youth spirituality, that spirituality of joy, friendship with Jesus and Mary, the fulfilment of one’s duties, giving oneself to others. Zefferino represents the convincing proof of the fidelity with which the first missionaries sent by Don Bosco succeeded in reproducing what he had done at the Oratory at Valdocco: forming young saints. This continues to be our task today, in a world in need of young people inspired by a clear sense of the meaning of life, daring in the choices they make and firmly concentrated on God while they serve others.”

For Fr Chávez “The beatification of Zefferino is an invitation to believe in young people, even in those scarcely evangelised, to discover the fruitfulness of the Gospel that destroys nothing that is truly human, and the contribution made by education to this stupendous work of shaping the individual person so that he reproduces in himself the image of Christ.”

The words the young man used to say - “I want to study so as to be useful to my people” – show how religious faith is not a form of adjustment or a lack of commitment, but “the force that makes the transformation of history possible.”

Together with some members of the General Council Fr Pascual Chávez will take part in the beatification of Zeffirino Namuncurà on Sunday 11 November at Chimpay at which the Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone will preside.

News

13/11/2007 - Italy – Celebration of the Argentine community in Rome

Photo for the article -ITALY – CELEBRATION OF THE ARGENTINE COMMUNITY IN ROME (ANS – Rome) – The celebrations for the beatification of Ceferino Namuncurà, Salesian student and aspirant, did not stop in Chimpay. In other countries where the Salesian charism is to be found there have been events and celebrations in honour of the new Blessed.

Particularly significant was the celebration of the Argentine community in Rome who together with that from Ascoli Piceno, were in St Peter’s Square to listen to the Angelus of the Pope. Afterwards in the early afternoon the Argentine groups were in the basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome where they attended Mass celebrated by Cardinale Jorge María Mejia, retired Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives. The celebration, in which about 50 priests took part – Salesians teaching at the Salesian Pontifical University and other Argentine priests present in Rome, was accompanied by Argentine faithful from Ascoli Piceno, who under the guidance of Mr Alfredo Gende sang hymns in the mother tongue. Present among the 200 faithful who took part in the Mass which was celebrated almost at the same time as that in Chimpay, were Mrs Gloria Custer, wife of the Ambassador of the Argentine to the Holy See Carlos Luis Custer, and Mr. Hugo Javier Gobbi, acting Minister of Affairs of Argentina.

In his homily, Cardinal Mejia recalled his childhood with memories of his mother going on pilgrimage to Fortin Mercedes to venerate the tomb of the new Blessed with her friends and fellow Salesians-Cooperators, “therefore Blessed Ceferino is part of my childhood memories, and so contributed to my Christian formation as well as, I’m sure, to my priestly vocation.” Commenting on the passage in the gospel of St Luke he observed “The Lord is the God of the living not of the dead! So today Ceferino is alive among us. And so he points out a path: and as it were says to us: follow me, I’m waiting for you, so that you too may become sons and daughters of the resurrection, and and in the most real sense children of God. The Saints in fact achieved in the fullest possible way the gift of divine adoption, that all of us received in our Baptism. Let us see them and let us honour them as witnesses to the resurrection: that of Our Lord Jesus in which they believed and also ours.”

At the end of the celebration the members of the two Argentine communities visited the rooms of Don Bosco at the Sacred Heart and an exhibition prepared by Fr Juan Picca, lecturer at the UPS, of 12 sets of photographs and 4 displays containing authentic material referring to Ceferino’s life.

BBC World -- Tens of thousands of faithful attended the service in honour of Ceferino Namuncura, many of them dressed in ponchos and plumed headdresses.

The Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, led the service in the Patagonian town of Chimpay.

Namuncura was training to become a priest when he died in Rome in 1905 at the age of 18.

Namuncura had a following among the country's poor that has grown since his death.

He was credited with a miracle seven years ago when a woman who prayed to him was apparently cured of uterus cancer.

She was one of up to 100,000 who gathered for the ceremony, parts of which were conducted in indigenous languages.

Cardinal Bertone, who ranks second to the Pope in the Vatican hierarchy, said Namuncura "was a role model for many, many young people".

"Ceferino never forgot he was a Mapuche [Indian]. Really, his ideal was to serve his people," he said.

Chimpay, 11 November 2007

Readings:
Exodus 3,1-9.15
Romans 12,9-21
Luke 10,21-24

1. “Just at this time, Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, and said: ‘I bless you Father Lord of heaven and of earth.’”
The Holy Spirit today fills us too, with Jesus and all his Church, with joy, and we give glory to the Father, Lord of heaven and of earth who has revealed to little children and not to the learned of this world the deep mysteries of his life and of his love.
To little children, to the poor, to those thirsting for justice, to those who work for peace, to the persecuted, to those who commit themselves each day to overcome evil with good, God communicates his life which is holiness.
The dramatic episode of the burning bush, absolutely central to the revelation of the Old Testament, reminds us that there is an abyss, in itself unbridgeable between the creature and the Creator. But in Jesus Christ – the Son of God who made himself a poor little child, and who humbled himself even to death on the cross – the abyss has been filled in, and whoever believes in Him can share in the very life of God.

Today we are celebrating these wonders of grace in a young Araucano, Ceferino Namuncurà, son of the Great Chief of the Pampas: Pope Benedict XVI, to whom go our grateful thoughts, has wished that today this young man of 19 should be inscribed in the List of the Blessed.
But who is Ceferino, and what is “the secret” of his holiness?

2. Ceferino – as we well know – was born into a proud and generous family of the strong tribe of the Araucani Indios, from the land of Patagonia.
If holiness was able to flourish in him it was because it found fertile soil in the human qualities belonging to his land and to his people, qualities that he assumed and perfected.
We are pleased to see in the Blessed Ceferino the whole history, often dramatic, of his people. He sums up in himself the suffering, the anguish and the aspirations of the Mapuches, who precisely during the years of his infancy came into contact with the Gospel and opened themselves to the gift of faith.
Glorifying God today in Blessed Ceferino also means recalling with gratitude the ancient traditions of the Mapuche, proud and undefeated; and at the same time discovering once again the fruitfulness of the Gospel, that never destroys the genuine values of which a culture is the expression, but takes them, purifies them and perfects them.
The life of Ceferino itself is like a “parable” teaching this profound truth. Ceferino never forgot that he was a Mapuche: his highest aim was to be useful to his people. But his coming into contact with the Gospel meant that this fundamental aspiration developed in a new direction: and it became a burning desire to be a Salesian, and a priest, “to show” his Mapuches brothers “the way to heaven.”

3. He chose as his model in life Dominic Savio. This beloved pupil of Don Bosco was proclaimed a saint by Pius XII in 1954, and at the same time, in a sense, this marked the canonisation of the “simple recipe” for holiness that the “father and teacher of youth” one day gave to Dominic. A recipe more or less like this: “Be always cheerful; carry out your duties of study and piety well; help your companions.”

Cheerfulness, above all. “He smiles with his eyes,” his companions used to say about Ceferino. He was the life and soul of the recreations, taking part with imagination and enthusiasm, sometimes even boisterousness. He knew how to perform conjuring tricks that led to him being called “the magician.” He organised competitions and taught his companions the best way to make bows and arrows and then trained them to fire at the target.
Don Bosco used to recommend that Dominic Savio should carry out his duties of study and piety. In the Salesian College of Villa Sora, in Frascati, Ceferino – although he had some difficulty with Italian – in a few months was second in class. In the mark-book his excellent results in Latin stand out: it was an important requirement for someone wanting to be a priest.
Ceferino’s piety was that characteristic of Salesian circles, strongly rooted in the Sacraments, and in particular in the Eucharist, considered “the column” of the preventive system. For this reason Ceferino was very willing to take on the job of sacristan. During the months of his stay in Turin, he was seen to spend hours in the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians, in intimate conversation with Jesus.

Finally, Don Bosco used to recommend that Dominic should help his companions.
In this regard the testimony of the Salesian Fr Iorio is impressive. Three days before Ceferino died, Fr Iorio had gone to visit him in the John of God Hospital on the Island in the Tiber. Our Blessed, almost at the end of his life, said to him: “Father, in a short time I shall be going, but I recommend to you this poor boy in the bed near to mine. Come back often and visit him.. He is suffering so much! During the night he hardly ever sleeps, he keeps coughing …”. And he said this when he himself, Ceferino, was in a much worse state and couldn’t sleep at all.

4. Someone going into the Vatican Basilica, can see way up in the last niche on the right hand side of the central nave, a large statue of Saint John Bosco, pointing to the altar and the tomb of Saint Peter. Beside him are two boys, one with European features, the other with those typical of the people of South America. The reference is obviously to the two holy boys: Dominic Savio and Ceferino Namuncurà. It is the only representation of boys in the Vatican Basilica. In this way, set in marble at the heart of Christianity is the example of youthful holiness, and fixed at the same time is the permanent validity of the pedagogical intuitions of Don Bosco: in a century and a half, in Patagonia, as in Italy and in so many other parts of the world, the preventive system has brought to maturity almost unhoped for fruit, it has formed heroes and saints.

5. Blessed Ceferino, now we turn to your powerful intercession: support us on our journey so that we too in our own day may follow the path of holiness, faithful to the teaching of Don Bosco.
You reached the heights of gospel holiness fulfilling well the duties of every day. You also remind us that holiness is not something exceptional, reserved to the elect few: holiness is the common vocation of all the baptised, and is the demanding gaol of ordinary Christian life.
Help us to understand that when all is said and done, only one thing matters: to be holy just as He the Lord is Holy.
Blessed Ceferino, be our guide with your smiling face. Show us the way to heaven! Accompany all of us to our meeting with your Friend Jesus.

Amen!