Speaker 1: Somebody who got out the boat, who sacrificed himself so
Speaker 1: much so he sacrificed himself for his fellow students, giving
Speaker 1: his life during a terrifying school shooting in twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: May of twenty nineteen at Stem School and Highlands Ranch.
Speaker 1: Was eighteen year old Kendrick Castillo. A true hero in
Speaker 1: the fullest sense of the word. And he's always just been,
Speaker 1: I think, a guiding light for what it means to
Speaker 1: be selfless, what it means to give of yourself in
Speaker 1: this case as much as you can, giving his life,
Speaker 1: saving fellow students and staff in the midst of terrifying
Speaker 1: act of violence and terror. And now there's something very
Speaker 1: remarkable afoot, and that is an effort that is beginning
Speaker 1: the process to potentially bring sainthood for Kendrick Castillo as
Speaker 1: a cause of canonization has begun in the Catholic Church,
Speaker 1: stemming from Saint Mark Catholic Church in Highland's Ranch, which
Speaker 1: is part of the Diocese of Colorado Springs. And I'm
Speaker 1: a Catholic myself, and this, I think is a very
Speaker 1: remarkable story, and I wanted to get a better understanding
Speaker 1: of what's involved here, why, and what it means and
Speaker 1: entails so on and so forth, and thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: why not invite someone from the parishon one of the
Speaker 1: priests there is, in fact, Father Patrick de Loretto, and
Speaker 1: he's kind enough to join us this afternoon to talk
Speaker 1: about this cause of canonization for Kendrick Castillo. Father, welcome
Speaker 1: to KOA. It's good to talk with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jamy, thank you for having me on today.
Speaker 1: Thank you for taking some time this afternoon. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Before we get to the reasons that we're
Speaker 1: sort of motivating the cause of canonization, let's explain that
Speaker 1: term cause of canonization in the term of siknhood in
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. What do those really mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. Cause of canonization is a process in
Speaker 2: which the Church does a very thorough investigation in the
Speaker 2: entire over the entire life of an individual. And it's
Speaker 2: a determined is this person they lead a holy life
Speaker 2: on earth? Are they somebody who we should emulate? And
Speaker 2: the Church through it, through its investigation, will encourage people, okay,
Speaker 2: seek this person's intercession. If they are in fact in heaven,
Speaker 2: their prayers should have a very powerful effect. And if
Speaker 2: we have some miraculous event that happens from this, and
Speaker 2: it does have to be a confirmed miracle that has happened,
Speaker 2: that has to go through a board of doctors and
Speaker 2: scientists to investigate it, to determine if there is any
Speaker 2: natural reason for why this thing might have happened. And
Speaker 2: if the Church gets two of those, then the Church
Speaker 2: can say we are elevating this person to the title
Speaker 2: of saints. They are somebody who the entire world should
Speaker 2: look to as an example of how to follow after
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, and who, after living such a heroic life,
Speaker 2: is now in heaven with him and we should ask him,
Speaker 2: as members of the body of the Body of Christ,
Speaker 2: for his prayers to heave to our heavenly Father and
Speaker 2: to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: In that way then, or that similar vein why does
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church have saints? And this goes back, of
Speaker 1: course a very very long time.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, very for the very foundings of the of
Speaker 2: the Church. The saints are individuals who, again, as I said,
Speaker 2: are in heaven and as the Church and the members
Speaker 2: of the Body of Christ, those here on earth are
Speaker 2: connected through that sacramental mystery that is known as baptism.
Speaker 2: Those in heaven are still members of the Church through
Speaker 2: that aptismal sacraments which they receive on earth, and therefore
Speaker 2: we are all still connected with the Church. Here on
Speaker 2: earth is called the Church militant, the Church the pilgrim
Speaker 2: church that is seeking to get its members into heaven.
Speaker 2: And those who are in heaven already are called the
Speaker 2: Church victorious. Those are the members who have, through the
Speaker 2: grace of Jesus Christ, have come into heaven and are
Speaker 2: now beholding in face to face. And we all are
Speaker 2: the courage to tre for one another. Both those here
Speaker 2: on earth and those in heaven are current are constantly
Speaker 2: prank books we look to we would look to our
Speaker 2: Lord saying there is more rejoicing in heaven of a
Speaker 2: one repentant sinner than ninety ninety I had no need
Speaker 2: of repentance. Well, okay, if those are in heaven are
Speaker 2: rejoicing over something that is happening on earth, they're very
Speaker 2: clearly aware of it. And as our brothers and sisters
Speaker 2: in heaven, they are encouraged. They are following the commandments
Speaker 2: of our Lord to pray for the fall of the
Speaker 2: members of the Body of Christ. As we are here
Speaker 2: on earth.
Speaker 1: Real quickly, Reverend Patrick Dillaretto of Saint Mark, a Catholic
Speaker 1: church in Highland's Ranch, just to sort of clear up,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of misconceptions about the idea of praying
Speaker 1: to saints. A similarly for Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
Speaker 1: Mother of God. Can you clarify when there may be
Speaker 1: a prayer to say you forget something? My mom always
Speaker 1: has prayer to Saint Anthony. But what that what that
Speaker 1: really entails for Catholics?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is? This is it the same principles? If
Speaker 2: I ask you to pray for me here on earth,
Speaker 2: is that I'm not asking you by your own power,
Speaker 2: by your own authority to work something miraculous. I'm asking you,
Speaker 2: as a member of the body of Christ, to pray
Speaker 2: for me. So we get a whole host of people
Speaker 2: interceding on it for a particular intention to our heavenly Father,
Speaker 2: asking for a particular thing to be done. And those
Speaker 2: in heaven are so much closer to Him than we
Speaker 2: are here on earth, and so we certainly wish to
Speaker 2: ask their intercession, saying, hey, please ask this favor for me.
Speaker 2: And I'm certainly it doesn't mean we're not going to
Speaker 2: be praying for it ourselves. But we want to get
Speaker 2: as many people as possible praying for a particular intention,
Speaker 2: of course, disposing ourselves to the will of God, but
Speaker 2: getting as many people to pray for an intention as
Speaker 2: possible is always a great thing to have.
Speaker 1: Sure, So let's talk for a moment about the pathways
Speaker 1: versus the process of canonization, the pathways towards sainthood and
Speaker 1: the process of canonization, because there is a distinction there,
Speaker 1: you were telling me.
Speaker 2: Yes, there is. There are three pathways in which a
Speaker 2: cause of canonization can be opened. Two of them are
Speaker 2: very traditional. The very first one is living a life
Speaker 2: of heroic virtue, which is all right, maybe you didn't
Speaker 2: have an extraordinary death which you lay down your life
Speaker 2: for our Lord, such as martyrdom, which is the other
Speaker 2: the other traditional pathways, But you lived a life of
Speaker 2: just giving yourself over to Christ, giving yourself over completely
Speaker 2: to Him in the small things and in the big things.
Speaker 2: And this can be seen through spiritual writings. We see
Speaker 2: this in persons like Captain of Sieno, or the rest
Speaker 2: of the Sue, or Saint Anthony, where they gave themselves
Speaker 2: in time, throughout their entire life over to Christ, and
Speaker 2: that is heroic and something that ought to be emulated.
Speaker 2: The other pathway, as I mentioned, is martyrdom, in which
Speaker 2: you lay down your life in defense of the faith,
Speaker 2: where somebody kills you out of hatred for the Christian faith.
Speaker 2: And martyrs certainly go back to the early Church. You
Speaker 2: see a whole host of them who are so famous
Speaker 2: and their writings are so famous for us even today.
Speaker 2: But we certainly have modern day martyrs as well as
Speaker 2: we look to as like these are examples of heroic
Speaker 2: virtue in times of incredible persecution that Christians ought to
Speaker 2: look at as as as an example of hope of
Speaker 2: holding on to our Lord Jesus Christ in the worst
Speaker 2: possible moments. And the third and final pathway domanacustic anonization,
Speaker 2: which is the most recent one and was only allowed
Speaker 2: by Hope Francis in twenty seventeen, is and I want
Speaker 2: to say the exact wording here the offering of one's
Speaker 2: life heroically, so laying down your life up to save others,
Speaker 2: but not necessarily out of uh uh defending the faith
Speaker 2: or i martyrdom per se. And this one we could
Speaker 2: look at you as as maybe an example of Hendrick
Speaker 2: where he slewly did lay down his life to protect
Speaker 2: his friends, to protect his classmates and his teachers from
Speaker 2: this horrible student shooting. But those are the three pathways.
Speaker 1: And in terms of pathways, it seems like that's sort
Speaker 1: of the basis for a being canonized, as opposed to
Speaker 1: say the process, which could last a very long time
Speaker 1: and step by step, and we'll talk about the process
Speaker 1: and in just a moment, Father Deloretto, But I do
Speaker 1: want to ask in terms of Kendrick Castillo and this, this, this,
Speaker 1: the pathways that you just explained about offering of one's
Speaker 1: life heroically is a pathway that seems sort of the
Speaker 1: most likely pathway for him. How has this been presented
Speaker 1: to the Diocese of Colorado Springs to say, hey, we
Speaker 1: would like you Bishop Golka, the Bishop of the Diocese
Speaker 1: of Colorado Springs, to consider this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So when we hear at Saint Mark submitted our
Speaker 2: eighty page petition to Bishop Bilko, we included in their
Speaker 2: circumstantial evidence for all three potential pathways for opening a cause.
Speaker 2: And we included all those because it is truly the
Speaker 2: bishop's prerogatives to discern which one of these if any
Speaker 2: am I going to pursue if I opened this cause
Speaker 2: for canonization, and we wanted to give him as much
Speaker 2: information as possible and as well as much as you
Speaker 2: can in a concise form of eighty pages, but giving
Speaker 2: him that information, and ultimately it's up for him to decide, Yeah,
Speaker 2: which one am I going to end to gate more
Speaker 2: to pursue, because especially heroic virtue that you need to
Speaker 2: look at all of Kendrick's writings throughout his entire life,
Speaker 2: and it takes a long, long investigation into that before
Speaker 2: you can send it on to the Vatican. So it's
Speaker 2: all three are in Vishupolca courts, and we certainly don't
Speaker 2: want to try to restrict him on any of those.
Speaker 1: Sure, so real quickly we'll just sum up what's the
Speaker 1: process here for the potential canonization of somebody as a saint?
Speaker 1: And how long can it take?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So what has to start initially as a bishop
Speaker 2: or religious superior has to look at an individual and
Speaker 2: say I want to open a cop and if there's
Speaker 2: what we call a cult of veneration, which means there's
Speaker 2: a popular piety amongst the people of God to seek
Speaker 2: somebody's intercession, that is a great sign that there would
Speaker 2: be support amongst the people of God to raise somebody
Speaker 2: up to the title of sainthood. And that's where we're
Speaker 2: at right now with Kendrick Castillo. Not that the Bishop
Speaker 2: Bold has opened the cause formally yet, but right now
Speaker 2: we're testing the waters seeing if there is in fact
Speaker 2: that movement amongst the people of God to seek his
Speaker 2: intercession and to want to raise him up to be
Speaker 2: a saint. And certainly there's been a lot of very
Speaker 2: positive momentum in that regard. And then once a cause
Speaker 2: is officially opened and it is approved by the bishop
Speaker 2: and it is being sent on to Rome, the person
Speaker 2: is immediately granted the title of servant of God. Now,
Speaker 2: servant of God means that your cause for canonization is
Speaker 2: officially open. A diocese or religious order is actively pursuing
Speaker 2: having in Canada, and the Vatican is going to be
Speaker 2: investigating and looking through all the materials presented to it,
Speaker 2: and they are a ton of materials that goes into
Speaker 2: these cases. And once the Vaticant comes back with a
Speaker 2: decision on the person's life, if, for example, if you're
Speaker 2: looking at heroic virtue, they're going to go through all
Speaker 2: of those papers. They're going to go through all the writings,
Speaker 2: and if they come back with a favorable physician saying
Speaker 2: yes he did in fact or she in fact lived
Speaker 2: a heroic life, we are going to call her venerable.
Speaker 2: And venerable is not saying the person is in heaven,
Speaker 2: but merely that they are in fact they were heroic,
Speaker 2: they were virtuous, and they should be somebody to They
Speaker 2: are somebody that we should ought to admire or for
Speaker 2: their virtue and their heroic or their heroic actions. And
Speaker 2: then if somebody is declared with martyr, they don't need
Speaker 2: a miracle to be called. What's so they receive the
Speaker 2: next title, which is called blessed. Blessed the church is
Speaker 2: officially saying, yes, this person is absolutely in heaven. We
Speaker 2: are affirming this and this local area, like the dice
Speaker 2: in the color of Springs or the United States, this
Speaker 2: is an example for you all in your country how
Speaker 2: to live a heroic and virtuous life in order to
Speaker 2: conform yourself to Jesus Christ. If they are not declared
Speaker 2: to martyrs, then they need to have at least one
Speaker 2: confirmed miracle. And again it's a very arduous process. Sure
Speaker 2: to have a miracle confirmed by the Vatican. So once
Speaker 2: they get that miracle again, all bless it for saints.
Speaker 2: They need to have two. They need to have to
Speaker 2: confirmed miracles. And at that point again the Church will say,
Speaker 2: all universal Christians throughout the world, we are saying, this
Speaker 2: person is an example for all of you of how
Speaker 2: to live a virtuous life in conformity of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting. Again we're talking with Reverend Patrick Dilloretto
Speaker 1: of Saint Mark Catholic Church in Highland's Ranch, which has
Speaker 1: requested that Bishop James R. Golka of the Diocese of
Speaker 1: chlor the Springs consider this cause of canonization, presenting an
Speaker 1: eighty page packet laying a lot of this out. It
Speaker 1: is really interesting to getting an understanding of this because
Speaker 1: when you see a headline such as from uh you
Speaker 1: know a place like you know, any local TV station
Speaker 1: saying Colorado teen Kendrick Castillo could become a saint, it
Speaker 1: raises the question why, how, what's involved? And I appreciate
Speaker 1: you laying that out. A final question for you before
Speaker 1: we let you go, what can people do if they
Speaker 1: feel supportive or call to back this cause? What can
Speaker 1: they do to support it? And do you need to
Speaker 1: be Catholic in that way.
Speaker 2: Well, first and foremost prayer, and you don't need to
Speaker 2: be Catholic in order to pray. You if you see
Speaker 2: the value in having a symbol of virtue somebody in
Speaker 2: modern times, for young and all the like, to give
Speaker 2: them hope that you know, even in the modern world
Speaker 2: there is a virsue, there are people striving after Christ.
Speaker 2: That is not wrong to pray that somebody might be
Speaker 2: shown to be an example for that. And for those
Speaker 2: who are who feel so called, I would encourage you
Speaker 2: seek Kendrick's intercession, asking him for favors. He loved to
Speaker 2: introduced to people of the prayer. He loves to introduce
Speaker 2: people to the faith. Maybe if you have a friend
Speaker 2: who's been a wave from the faith. Maybe if you
Speaker 2: have a friend who's struggling with the faith, maybe ask
Speaker 2: his interception, ask him to help that friend or that
Speaker 2: family member to bring them closer to Jesus, to bring
Speaker 2: them closer to Christ through Kendrick's prayer and session. And
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the best things you can do.
Speaker 2: And if you feel also called, you can certainly write
Speaker 2: a letter to Bishop Golka and say Hey, your excellency,
Speaker 2: I think this is a praise worthy endeavor. I certainly
Speaker 2: support opening this cause for canonization. Know of my prayers
Speaker 2: for you and the crew discernment. This is not in
Speaker 2: any of course to try to like twished his arm well,
Speaker 2: just to show him, Yes, there is the support amongst
Speaker 2: the people of God to open this cause. And some
Speaker 2: people will say this might take centuries, and it could,
Speaker 2: but it also looking at the example of Carlo Ocutas
Speaker 2: who died in two thousand and six, it could just
Speaker 2: take a day. Sure, he's getting canonized in September. So yeah, God,
Speaker 2: let me see don according to his will.
Speaker 1: Fascinating. Well, Father Patrick di Loreto of Saint Mark Church,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking some time. I am friends
Speaker 1: with I have become and had the honor of becoming
Speaker 1: friends with John and Maria Castillo, Kendrick's parents, and I
Speaker 1: look at the legacy that he left behind, and it
Speaker 1: is truly rich. And we have such a powerful example
Speaker 1: from the life that Kendrick Castillo led and that is
Speaker 1: embodied in the way in which he sacrificed his life
Speaker 1: for others. And so really appreciate the request for this
Speaker 1: cause of canonization and appreciate you laying out for us.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, absolutely pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you again for having me on and Gon.
Speaker 1: Bless you all you as well. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: Father Patrick Delorreto