Lumen 2018

A Justified Delay The beginning of the beatification process continued to be de- layed. There were various reasons for this delay, among others, the lack of knowledge of the proper procedures, the lack of direct con- tacts with Rome, the small number of members of the Congrega- tion, and thus the lack of an appropriate person to handle the matter. The Marians did not have their own protector, either. 115 Father Wyszynski pointed out some of these reasons after his meeting with an expert in Rome, Fr. Andrew Budryoli, SJ, who was surprised by how slowly this matter was proceeding. At that time, Fr. Wyszynski wrote to Fr. Cajetan Wetycki: “I explained to him that there were various reasons why we could not do it earlier. I told him that at first we had to free our Congregation from various persecutions, which were followed by pestilence and various wars. Therefore, we did not really have an opportunity to begin the beatification process of our holy Founder.” 116 In the next year, he wrote again: “Since we have delayed the matter so much, he advised me to present the following reasons to the judges: the fact that our Congregation was persecuted by so many people, in- cluding our own members, just as it was the case of Blessed Joseph Calasantius; that we were tormented by wars and pestilence; that our predecessors neglected the matter, but were punished for it by God; the fact that our Congregation is poor, otherwise, we would have begun our endeavors immediately after our Reverend Father’s noble death.” 117 Referring to the fact that certain matters associated with the process were neglected, Fr. Wyszynski also blamed himself. He wrote to Fr. Wetycki: “God is my witness that for as long as I have been in this Congre- gation, I have always recommended it to our members and tried to persuade our Superiors to do it. But they always skirted the issue with their evasive answers and tried to convince me that such matters should be started only after at least a hundred years had passed. But, when I S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 442