A young Jesuit who died shielding his students from a grenade blast will soon be on the path to sainthood, following Pope Francis’ recent declaration that those who give their lives for others in situations of certain death can be considered for canonization.

 

Filipino Jesuit scholastic Richie Fernando worked as a missionary in Cambodia in Banteay Prieb, the Jesuit vocational training center for survivors of landmines and polio and people with learning disabilities. In October 1996 an emotionally distraught student brought a grenade to school. When he approached a classroom full of students, grenade in hand, Mr. Fernando grabbed him from behind. The student, Sarom, dropped the grenade, and the explosion killed the young Jesuit. His body had shielded Sarom and the other students from the blast.

 

Mr. Fernando had written to a friend about his students months before his death: “I suddenly find myself feeling great love for them. If only I could follow Christ's ways. If only I could help all of them as God would…. I hope I could offer my life to them to the fullest.”

 

 

 

Totet Banaynal, S.J., was Mr. Fernando’s best friend. He described Mr. Fernando as an ordinary man, helpful and intelligent, who liked to play basketball, swim and run. In his letters to Father Banaynal, Mr. Fernando shows himself to be a jokester as well: He recounts several stories about people mistaking him for a security guard, driver or someone who does not speak English, and he plays along until he surprises them in the end.

 

Father Banaynal and Mr. Fernando exchanged hundreds of letters, the last of which Mr. Fernando wrote four days before his death. Father Banaynal received it a week after Mr. Fernando’s funeral. 

 

read more https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/08/07/young-jesuit-killed-cambodia-be-considered-canonization

Gotta keep pumping out those saints. It's a measure of their standing in society and takes the spotlight off all the sex offenders they protect day in day out. 

Hypocrites the lot of them.