Faced with this good news, the Rector Major becomes the spokesman for the whole Congregation and raises a hymn of praise and thanksgiving: first of all to God, for His love for the Church, for the Salesian Congregation, and for the Salesian Family, which is manifested once again through the seal of holiness impressed on the luminous figure of the nurse of Viedma.
Then, there is also a special thanks to the Holy Father "for his finesse, for his sensitivity to holiness throughout the Church." The Rector Major recalls the Pope's attention to holiness and his reminders of that widespread, hidden, "next door" holiness; although he emphasizes that "the holiness that the Church recognizes today" in Artemide Zatti is one that "is fully manifested and in a very special way."
"Our dearest Artemide Zatti is a beautiful figure because he is the first Saint of the Congregation," continues Fr. Á.F. Artime. And he clarifies shortly thereafter: of course, Don Bosco is a saint, but he figures as the founder of the Congregation; Dominic Savio has also been canonized, but the "boy saint," expresses the beauty of the pedagogy and the path of holiness that Don Bosco proposed to his boys; while the martyred saints Louis Versiglia and Callistus Caravario had a path of holiness marked by the shedding of blood.
In Zatti's case, instead, there is the manifestation of holiness lived in daily life, in simplicity, in humble and jovial service, especially to the sick. "Doing everything for the glory of God, to be what I must be: a holy Salesian" is, not by chance, the quote from Zatti that opens the video-message, which testifies to the holiness achieved through a daily exercise of charity.
Of the peculiarities of this future saint, the Tenth Successor of Don Bosco also emphasizes the lay nature of his consecration, his being fully and faithfully a Salesian coadjutor as Don Bosco wanted him to be: a witness, close to the people, dedicated to service.
Fr Á.F. Artime then retraces the Salesian traits of the life of the future saint: the experience of hard work beginning from childhood, the emigration to Argentina with his family, the entrance into the Salesian aspirantate and that illness - tuberculosis, contracted in service - that seemed to upset his plans, but instead would serve to guide him towards the full fulfillment of his vocation; then the long years of service at the hospital, the suffering for the closure of the hospital, the restart in another structure and finally the tumor that led him to the encounter with God.
The Rector Major concludes his video-message by observing that there are so many prompts of and from Bro. Zatti and that there is much that one can continue to meditate and reflect upon in view of his canonization. In the meantime, he observed that in this year that marks the 400th anniversary of the death of St. Francis de Sales, inseparable for the Congregation from the great figure of Don Bosco, the shining figure of Artemide Zatti, a consecrated lay Salesian, is also included.
The complete video of the Rector Major's message is available in Italian and Spanish on ANSChannel.
