On May 22nd, Pope Leo XIV authorized the promulgation of decrees that made Servants of God Sister Agnese Arango Velásquez, Bishop Alessandro Labaka Ugarte and Bishop Matthew Makil Venerable.
Recognition as Venerable affirms their virtues and advances their causes for canonization toward beatification.
Agnese Arango Velásquez joined the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in 1955. After 20 years in education, she began missionary service in Ecuador in 1977, where she began ministering to remote communities and supporting local healthcare.
Alessandro Labaka Ugarte was born in Beizama, Spain in 1920 and ordained in 1945. Following his expulsion from China in 1953, he was named Apostolic Prefect of Aguarico in 1965 and became its first Apostolic Vicar in 1984. Fluent in Indigenous languages, he advocated for tribal rights.
In 1987, both Sister Arango and Bishop Labaka descended by helicopter to uncontacted people’s territory to seek peaceful contact. Their bodies were later discovered with multiple spear and arrow wounds.
Matthew Makil, born in Manjoor, India in 1851, was ordained in 1874 and appointed Vicar General of Kottayam in 1889. He founded the Sisters of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1892. Consecrated Apostolic Vicar of Changanacherry in 1896, Makil established catechetical and school education programs. In 1911, he petitioned Pope Pius X to create the Vicariate of Kottayam, becoming its first bishop.
The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints will now evaluate any miracles attributed to their intercession.
Pray for Venerable Sister Agnese Arango Velásquez, Bishop Alessandro Labaka Ugarte & Bishop Matthew Makil! 
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