The air in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome seemed to carry the weight of an entire country. It was not only incense that rose to the heavens that October 2025; it was the prayers, tears, and sighs of relief of a nation that, for a moment, forgot its many challenges to recognize itself in its saints.
This time, Venezuela wasn’t in the headlines for economic crisis or political strife. Rather, it was in the spotlight as the “beloved Venezuela” that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope's Secretary of State, invoked with the choked voice of one who knows that land’s suffering.
It was a Mass of thanksgiving for the canonization of St. José Gregorio Hernández and St. Carmen Rendiles Martínez, illustrious children of that homeland.
But the tone set by Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican's top diplomat and former papal representative in Caracas, went far beyond the liturgy. He spoke to those in the pews of the Vatican Basilica, but it seemed as if his gaze was fixed on those listening to the radio in the remote corners of the Andes and the young people who would follow his message on the internet in the slums of Petare.
Justice from above
“Holiness is the supreme good, but it flourishes where there is justice,” the Cardinal pointed out. On this occasion, the Vatican used the “soft power” of the saints to send a direct message: the common good is not an abstraction, but an urgent need.
Cardinal Parolin didn’t shy away from the hard facts. Standing beside the relics of the Venezuelan saints, he recalled that faith is a force of resistance that calls for dignity and peaceful coexistence based on truth.
The canonization of St. José Gregorio Hernández, the doctor who died after being hit by a car while taking medicine to a poor woman, serves as the perfect symbol of this message. Cardinal Parolin emphasized that the “Doctor of the Poor” is the model of the kind of citizen that Venezuela needs to rebuild itself: someone who puts science at the service of charity and politics at the service of others.
And according to Cardinal Parolin,
"Mother Carmen Rendiles is synonymous with overcoming obstacles, even in the midst of her physical limitations. She typifies constancy of faith placed in God, who does not abandon us. It fell to her to watch over the service to Jesus in its most sublime mystery, that of the Eucharist. In her, the Church wants to honor the strong woman who works, builds, and guarantees the transmission of faith to generations who have entrusted themselves to her. In her, the Church celebrates the strength of Venezuelan female genius and recognizes the consecrated women who, at the beginning of the 20th century, led the reconstruction of Catholicism in Venezuela."
Cross and hope
The canonizations that took place in October 2025 marked a sign of hope in contrast to the totalitarian regime that ruled in the country and the daily difficulties of its citizens.
Cardinal Parolin, looking out at those present at the ceremony, must have remembered the people he encountered in Caracas and in the forests of the country where he was Apostolic Nuncio for four years. The Cardinal, with emotion, was emphatic in saying that the Vatican continues to follow every step of the Venezuelan people.
His message was clear: the Church does not seek power, it seeks peace. And that peace will only be solid if it is “just and lasting.”
Faith in Venezuela
The saints, now officially elevated to the altars, have become permanent ambassadors of a cause that transcends party politics: human dignity.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the end of his homily, addressed a message in the form of an exhortation. It was not a political speech or a formulaic prayer; it expressed his deep feeling for the country he had served, which he called “Beloved Venezuela”:
Love not only in words and speeches, but in truth and with actions. Only then will we pass from death to life. Only then, dear Venezuela, will you pass from death to life. Only then, beloved Venezuela, will your light shine in the darkness. Your darkness will turn into midday, if you listen to the words of the Lord, who calls you to open unjust prisons, to break the chains of shackles, to free the oppressed, to break all chains. Only then, beloved Venezuela, will you be able to respond to your vocation of peace, if you build yourself on the foundations of justice, truth, freedom, and love, on respect for human rights, creating spaces for encounter and democratic coexistence, prioritizing what unites and not what divides, seeking the means and institutions to find common solutions to the great problems that affect you, placing the common good at the center of all public activity…
At the Angelus on Sunday, January 4, Pope Leo XIV showed solidarity with the new situation in Venezuela and invoked the protection of Mary and the Venezuelan saints so that, in this uncertain hour, the country may find in its saints the light necessary to see a possible tomorrow.
