Edinburg priest plays role in naming of saint, attends ceremony with Pope
EDINBURG — An Edinburg priest shared the stage with the pope in the Vatican City yesterdaySundayOct11 after playing an integral role in the canonization of a saint.
Father Emilio Vega, a native of Spain, was in St. Peter’s Square to hear Pope Benedict XVI give a decree during Sunday Mass to officially announce the canonization of five Roman Catholic priests into sainthood. Father Vega was postulator — lead promoter and investigator — for the cause of Father Damien de Veuster, who has been named the saint of those with leprosy and HIV/AIDS.
Father Vega has spent four years at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Edinburg as assistant priest. He was assigned to Sacred Heart by his congregation — Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary — after requesting a stint in the U.S. working with a Spanish-speaking population.
Father Vega left Edinburg from 1997 to 2007 to oversee the confirmation of a second miracle attributed to Saint Damien, the last step required for sainthood. The process often involved traveling back-and-forth from the Vatican offices in Italy to Hawaii, where the Vatican has determined a woman was cured from lung cancer in 2003 solely through prayers to Saint Damien.
Saint Damien is revered in Hawaii after spending 12 years caring for banished leprosy patients in the remote Hawaiian island of Molokai. He eventually died from leprosy himself in 1899.
“(Father Vega’s) work was essential,” said Father Robert Charlton, pastor at Edinburg’s Sacred Heart. “If he had not done his work, then the canonization would not have happened.”
Father Vega left for the Vatican City Thursday morning and will return Oct. 20. He will remain at Sacred Heart Church until next year, when his term through his congregation expires.
He could not be reached for comment.
Father Vega also played a role in the beatification of the “Martyr of Molokai,” the step before sainthood, by overseeing the confirmation of his first miracle. In that case, the Vatican attributed Saint Damien with curing a sister in his congregation, who recovered from near-fatal intestinal illness through prayers to him.
“It was a great honor to present Damien’s cause,” Father Vega told the Catholic News Service last month. “He is not only a hero in Hawaii and his native Belgium, but for all of humanity.”
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Nick Pipitone covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.
