On Sunday, October 6, 2024, Mass was celebrated, as every first Sunday of the month, at the Sanctuary Our Lady of the Candles – Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez, to pray for the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Maria Esperanza Bianchini. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. Fr. Gerardino Barracchini, Rector of the Sanctuary and Episcopal Vicar for Holiness, who, during his homily, highlighted the exemplary life of Maria Esperanza as a wife, mother, friend and evangelizer, asserting that peace and reconciliation dwell where the Lord dwells.
Fr. Barracchini emphasized on the fact that Maria Esperanza, together with her husband Geo Bianchini and their seven children, found in motherhood and fatherhood their main evangelizing vocation. Despite family responsibilities, the Servant of God never stopped proclaiming the greatness of God, turning her home into a true “Domestic Church”; and Father stressed the importance of educating young people in love and commitment, inspired by the example of this Venezuelan woman.
Her legacy continues through the Betania Spirituality Movement. Every week it welcomes between 200 and 400 pilgrims on guided tours of the Betania Sanctuary, to visit the oratories for a direct encounter with the Word of God.
In addition, the Betania Spirituality Movement also carries out the “School for Family and Reconciliation” Workshop, in alliance with the Family Ministry of the Archdiocese of Caracas, to help rescue the family and promote its reconciliation in various parishes, for example, the most recent one given on October 5, in the parish of Our Lady of Coromoto in Quebrada de Cua. Likewise, the Betania Choir continues to accompany liturgical celebrations at the most important moments of the ecclesiastical calendar and the sacramental life of the parishioners, and the meditated Holy Hour with chants by the youth of the choir, in different chapels and churches.
