Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, asked this Thursday the new pope, Leo XIV, the “prompt concretion” of the canonizations of the Venezuelan blesseds José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles, approved by the late pontiff Francisco in February and March last, respectively.

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“With filial respect, we raise our petition for the prompt completion of the causes of canonization of our blessed, Mother Carmen Rendiles and Dr. José Gregorio Hernández,” he said.

In a message shared on Telegram, Maduro pointed out that the “exemplary lives and proven holiness” of both blesseds “are beacons of hope and inspiration” for Venezuela which, with “fervor, yearns to see them elevated to the altars.”

The Bolivarian leader greeted with “deep devotion and hope” the election of Robert Francis Prevost, and expressed his desire that God “enlighten and strengthen him in the high mission entrusted to him”.

“We hope that your pastoral guidance will continue the valuable legacy of His Holiness Francis, Jorge Bergoglio. We are confident that the important advances made under his wise leadership will bear fruit, now under the new leadership,” said president Maduro.

Shortly before, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it congratulates the new pope and says it hopes that his leadership will mark a new time of “spiritual renewal, justice and rapprochement between peoples.”

In this regard, Venezuela’s FM stated that in these times of “profound challenges, marked by wars, the resurgence of fascism and the progressive weakening of the international balance in law and the values of full humanity, the pontificate of Leo XIV assumes a complex task: to contribute to restore ethical balances, spiritual and moral within the Catholic community and humanity as a whole”.

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