The Optional Memorial of Blessed Damien de Veuster

Blessed Damien de Veuster on USA National Calendar

On December 20, 1999, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, Prefect of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
confirmed the November 1999 decision of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops to place Blessed Damien Joseph de Veuster on the USA
National Calendar with the rank of optional memorial. A translation of
the decree of confirmation follows:

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Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Prot. N. 2741/99/L

The United States of America

At the request of His Excellency, the Most Rev. Joseph A. Fiorenza,
Bishop of Galveston-Houston, President of the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops, in letters received in November 1999, in virtue
of the faculties granted to this Congregation by the Supreme Pontiff,
John Paul II, we joyfully grant that the annual celebration of Blessed
Damien Joseph de Veuster, priest, may be inserted into the Calendar of
the dioceses of the United States of America on the fifteenth of
April, fixed with the grade of optional memorial.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, on the twentieth day of December l999.

Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estevez
Prefect
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