Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI
Friday, 1 August 2025
Oclarim
Macau (Agenzia Fides) – A request has been made to open the Cause of Canonization of the Salesian missionary Gaetano Nicosia, originally from Sicily and who died in Hong Kong at the age of 102. The announcement was made by edict by the Bishop of Macau, Sephen Lee Bun Sang, at the request of the Postulator General, Father Pierluigi Cameroni, following the transfer of jurisdiction from the Diocese of Hong Kong to that of Macau, and the favorable opinion of the bishops and the Nulla Osta of the Holy See received on May 21, 2025.As usual, the edict was issued to inform the local community about the request to initiate the canonization process so that all the faithful can provide the ecclesiastical authorities with all the information they have, both favorable and unfavorable, regarding the reputation of the Servant of God’s holiness.Born in San Giovanni la Punta, province of Catania, on April 3, 1915, Gaetano Nicosia left for China as a missionary in 1935 after attending the Salesian College of Caltagirone. At the age of 16, he had already decided to become a Salesian and continued his formation in China, first in Hong Kong and then in Macau, where he was ordained a priest in 1946 in the chapel of the São José Seminary. At the seminary, he studied with thirteen companions from different countries around the world. Some of them died in prison during the communist persecution in China.After 17 years of work in Salesian missionaries serving young people and the faithful in Macau, Hong Kong, and mainland China, an unexpected request arrived in August 1963: the bishop of Macau asked the Salesians to care for the leper colony of Ka Ho. No one, not even the doctors assigned by the government, dared to go to the isolated village, which could only be reached by boat. Enthusiastic, Gaetano Nicosia left to care for those people living in a remote area of the island of Coloane.He came across a dilapidated leper colony, so abandoned that many committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. With the missionary’s arrival, the place was transformed: the houses were renovated, a drinking water tank was built, and a dynamo was installed to produce energy (which was also used by a nearby village). A small farm was also established with pigs, chickens, and a vegetable garden. Those who could work helped with the crops or livestock, making bricks, and maintaining houses, roads, and gardens. Many lepers, thanks to the care and attention they received, were completely cured. In just a few years, the Salesian missionary, unconcerned with the fear of contagion, restored dignity to those people.The missionary himself recalled in his later years that at the Caltagirone College, which he attended as a child, there were missionary magazines. One of them featured a photo of a leper. He couldn’t bear to look at her, but then he thought, “She’s someone like me! Jesus, forgive me!” He lived there for 48 years straight, from 1963 to 2011, helping many overcome the stigma that plagued them and reintegrate into society.Among his many charitable works is the construction of a school and a hospital for people with disabilities, also in Macau. A few years ago, he met Pope Francis. Cardinal Joseph Zen accompanied him in his wheelchair. After an accident in 2010, he was hospitalized in Hong Kong, and was assisted especially by the Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Mary’s Home, where he died on November 6, 2017.The Bishop of Macau also announced the edict opening the Cause to the dioceses of Hong Kong, Catania, and the Patriarchate of Lisbon. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 1/8/2025)
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