Here is the final revision from the letter on January 2, 2021. This is it; I'm mailing it!
January 1, 2021
Your Holiness,
When you declared the year 2021, the year of St.
Joseph, I became very excited. You see
nine years ago, Pere Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P., was beatified in Besançon, France. Father Lataste, had great love for prisoners
because he founded the Dominican Sisters of Bethany with former prisoners, but
he also had a great love for Saint Joseph.
(cf J.M. Gueullette, My dear sisters, pp. 217-220).
It was Blessed Pope Pius IX, who, on December 8,
1870, declared St. Joseph the Patron Saint of the Church. Pope Pius was urged to proclaim St. Joseph
the patron by many people, but only one letter, from a priest, offered his life
for this proclamation.
“This
good religious (Jean Lataste) is offering the sacrifice of his life to obtain
that St. Joseph be declared Patron of the Universal Church. Father Lataste will shortly be granted his
wish. We have received more than five
hundred letters requesting that we declare St. Joseph patron of the Church, but
Fr. Lataste is the only one who offered his life.” H.-M. Cormier, Vie du Révérendissime
Père A.V. Jandel, Paris, Poussielgue, 1896 (2e édition), p. 458-460
All those who follow the spirituality of Blessed
Jean-Joseph Lataste, have been praying for his canonization. http://dominicains.ca/blessed-jean-joseph-lataste/?lang=en We hope that in this year of Saint Joseph,
Blessed Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P., will be canonized through the intercession
of Saint Joseph.
With your latest Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde, you remind us
that Saint Joseph represents “those who appear hidden in the shadows and yet somehow
play a role in salvation.” With those
words, you are explicitly speaking of Father Lataste. Due to his retreats to the women prisoners in
Cadillac Prison he converted and saved many souls. Later, with these former inmates, Father Lataste
founded the Dominican Sisters of Bethany in France. Many years later, this Latastian message of
forgiveness and mercy reached a prison of men in the USA (MCI Norfolk). A fraternity of Lay Dominicans was founded
under the patronage of Father Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P. This prison fraternity mentored two more
fraternities who follow Lataste’s spirituality: one in Texas and one in
Belgium. Father Lataste has certainly
played an incomparable role in the history of salvation.
All of us (Dominican Sisters of Bethany, the contemplative nuns,
the Lay Dominican Prisoners following Father Jean-Joseph, O.P.) hope and pray that
this year following the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of
Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, will be the year Father
Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P., will be declared a saint. We already know he is a saint and through the
intercession of Saint Joseph we pray that Your Holiness will make it officially
known throughout the world by canonizing, Father Jean-Joseph, O.P. I thank you in advance for your
consideration.
Ite Ad Joseph,
Respectfully your humble servant,
Mrs. Faith Flaherty, O.P.
Our Lady of Mercy Fraternity
Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic
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