Pietro Schiliro, the Italian child whose healing at the intercession of Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, led to their beatification in 2008, met Pope Francis in Rome on March 29, 2014.  Thanks to the Web site of the Shrine at Alencon (www.louiszeliemartin.com/eng), I have been permitted to post the photo of this encounter here and to share Mary Davidson's translation of the brief and moving first-person essay Pietro, now 11, wrote about this encounter.  Please read Pietro Schiliro's testimony about his meeting with Pope Francis here.

 The audio of this program is, of course, in French.

.Bishop Jacques Habert, bishop of Seez, introduces it.

• For this fifth anniversary, Walter and Adele Schiliro, the parents of the child Pietro whose healing at the intercession of Louis and Zelie Martin was accepted as the miracle for their beatification, traveled from Italy to France. The Schiliros are Italian, but you will see them seated in the sanctuary of the basilica where the couple whose intercession saved their son's life were married in 1858.  Walter Schiliro tells very simply the story of their son's birth, illness, and cure.  The Schiliros have said that their way of giving thanks is to make Louis and Zelie better known, and their testimony is deeply moving.
  
• Dr. Paterlini, a medical expert on Pietro Schiliro's case, then speaks about the case.
  
• Mgr Bernard Lagoutte, former rector of the basilica of St. Therese at Lisieux, will review the progress of the cause of the canonization of Zelie and Louis.  The program ends with questions from the audience.

We thank the diocese of Seez and M. Hubert Moritz for recording the program and uploading it so quickly. 

Icon by Paul Orlando for the Parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Trieste, Italy. Displayed on "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway" with permission of Fr. Antonio Sangalli, O.C.D.

On Saturday, October 18, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (8:30 p.m. in France), the diocese of Sees will broadcast live online the program "Toward Canonization," which is being held in the Basilica of Notre-Dame at Alencon, where Louis and Zelie were married and Therese was baptized. Watch it on the WebTV channel of the diocese of Sees..

The program is to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin.

• Bishop Hacques Habert, bishop of Seez, will introduce it.
  
• Mgr Bernard Lagoutte, former rector of the basilica of St. Therese at Lisieux, will review the progress of the cause of the canonization of Zelie and Louis.
  
•  Walter and Adele Schiliro, the parents of the child Pietro whose healing at the intercession of Louis and Zelie Martin was accepted as the miracle for their beatification, and Dr. Paterlini, a medical expert on Pietro's case, give their testimony. Find out all that you've always wanted to know about what a canonization is, what a miracle is, but have never had the occasion to ask.
  

The program is in French, but I believe it will excite persons of all languages. Please watch it at http://www.orne.catholique.fr/En-DIRECT-VIDEO-du-diocese.html 

I remember so vividly, five years ago this evening, being present at that very basilica in Alencon at the Pontifical Mass on the vigil of the Mass for the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin at Lisieux. 

If you missed the live broadcast, please watch the video:

• See stories in English about the healing of Pietro

• Revisit the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin


• Read about the miracle which is being examined by the Vatican for the canonizaton of Zelie and Louis Martin