Somebody who got out the boat, who sacrificed himself so much so he sacrificed himself for his fellow students, giving his life during a terrifying school shooting in twenty nineteen May of twenty nineteen at Stem School and Highlands Ranch. Was eighteen year old Kendrick Castillo. A true hero in
the fullest sense of the word. And he's always just been, I think, a guiding light for what it means to be selfless, what it means to give of yourself in this case as much as you can, giving his life, saving fellow students and staff in the midst of terrifying
act of violence and terror. And now there's something very remarkable afoot, and that is an effort that is beginning the process to potentially bring sainthood for Kendrick Castillo as a cause of canonization has begun in the Catholic Church, stemming from Saint Mark Catholic Church in Highland's Ranch, which
is part of the Diocese of Colorado Springs. And I'm a Catholic myself, and this, I think is a very remarkable story, and I wanted to get a better understanding of what's involved here, why, and what it means and entails so on and so forth, and thought, you know what, why not invite someone from the parishon one of the priests there is, in fact, Father Patrick de Loretto, and he's kind enough to join us this afternoon to talk about this cause of canonization for Kendrick Castillo. Father, welcome
to KOA. It's good to talk with you.
Thank you, Jamy, thank you for having me on today.
Thank you for taking some time this afternoon. I really appreciate it. Before we get to the reasons that we're sort of motivating the cause of canonization, let's explain that term cause of canonization in the term of siknhood in the Catholic Church. What do those really mean?
Yeah, great question. Cause of canonization is a process in which the Church does a very thorough investigation in the entire over the entire life of an individual. And it's a determined is this person they lead a holy life on earth? Are they somebody who we should emulate? And the Church through it, through its investigation, will encourage people, okay, seek this person's intercession. If they are in fact in heaven,
their prayers should have a very powerful effect. And if we have some miraculous event that happens from this, and it does have to be a confirmed miracle that has happened, that has to go through a board of doctors and scientists to investigate it, to determine if there is any natural reason for why this thing might have happened. And if the Church gets two of those, then the Church can say we are elevating this person to the title
of saints. They are somebody who the entire world should look to as an example of how to follow after Jesus Christ, and who, after living such a heroic life, is now in heaven with him and we should ask him, as members of the body of the Body of Christ, for his prayers to heave to our heavenly Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ.
In that way then, or that similar vein why does the Catholic Church have saints? And this goes back, of course a very very long time.
Oh, yes, very for the very foundings of the of the Church. The saints are individuals who, again, as I said, are in heaven and as the Church and the members of the Body of Christ, those here on earth are connected through that sacramental mystery that is known as baptism. Those in heaven are still members of the Church through that aptismal sacraments which they receive on earth, and therefore
we are all still connected with the Church. Here on earth is called the Church militant, the Church the pilgrim church that is seeking to get its members into heaven. And those who are in heaven already are called the Church victorious. Those are the members who have, through the grace of Jesus Christ, have come into heaven and are now beholding in face to face. And we all are
the courage to tre for one another. Both those here on earth and those in heaven are current are constantly prank books we look to we would look to our Lord saying there is more rejoicing in heaven of a one repentant sinner than ninety ninety I had no need of repentance. Well, okay, if those are in heaven are rejoicing over something that is happening on earth, they're very clearly aware of it. And as our brothers and sisters
in heaven, they are encouraged. They are following the commandments of our Lord to pray for the fall of the members of the Body of Christ. As we are here on earth.
Real quickly, Reverend Patrick Dillaretto of Saint Mark, a Catholic church in Highland's Ranch, just to sort of clear up, there's a lot of misconceptions about the idea of praying to saints. A similarly for Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Mother of God. Can you clarify when there may be a prayer to say you forget something? My mom always has prayer to Saint Anthony. But what that what that really entails for Catholics?
Yeah, it is? This is it the same principles? If I ask you to pray for me here on earth, is that I'm not asking you by your own power, by your own authority to work something miraculous. I'm asking you, as a member of the body of Christ, to pray for me. So we get a whole host of people interceding on it for a particular intention to our heavenly Father,
asking for a particular thing to be done. And those in heaven are so much closer to Him than we are here on earth, and so we certainly wish to ask their intercession, saying, hey, please ask this favor for me. And I'm certainly it doesn't mean we're not going to
be praying for it ourselves. But we want to get as many people as possible praying for a particular intention, of course, disposing ourselves to the will of God, but getting as many people to pray for an intention as possible is always a great thing to have.
Sure, So let's talk for a moment about the pathways versus the process of canonization, the pathways towards sainthood and the process of canonization, because there is a distinction there, you were telling me.
Yes, there is. There are three pathways in which a cause of canonization can be opened. Two of them are very traditional. The very first one is living a life of heroic virtue, which is all right, maybe you didn't have an extraordinary death which you lay down your life for our Lord, such as martyrdom, which is the other the other traditional pathways, But you lived a life of just giving yourself over to Christ, giving yourself over completely to Him in the small things and in the big things.
And this can be seen through spiritual writings. We see this in persons like Captain of Sieno, or the rest of the Sue, or Saint Anthony, where they gave themselves in time, throughout their entire life over to Christ, and that is heroic and something that ought to be emulated. The other pathway, as I mentioned, is martyrdom, in which you lay down your life in defense of the faith, where somebody kills you out of hatred for the Christian faith.
And martyrs certainly go back to the early Church. You see a whole host of them who are so famous and their writings are so famous for us even today. But we certainly have modern day martyrs as well as we look to as like these are examples of heroic virtue in times of incredible persecution that Christians ought to look at as as as an example of hope of holding on to our Lord Jesus Christ in the worst
possible moments. And the third and final pathway domanacustic anonization, which is the most recent one and was only allowed by Hope Francis in twenty seventeen, is and I want to say the exact wording here the offering of one's life heroically, so laying down your life up to save others, but not necessarily out of uh uh defending the faith
or i martyrdom per se. And this one we could look at you as as maybe an example of Hendrick where he slewly did lay down his life to protect his friends, to protect his classmates and his teachers from this horrible student shooting. But those are the three pathways.
And in terms of pathways, it seems like that's sort of the basis for a being canonized, as opposed to say the process, which could last a very long time and step by step, and we'll talk about the process and in just a moment, Father Deloretto, But I do want to ask in terms of Kendrick Castillo and this, this, this, the pathways that you just explained about offering of one's life heroically is a pathway that seems sort of the
most likely pathway for him. How has this been presented to the Diocese of Colorado Springs to say, hey, we would like you Bishop Golka, the Bishop of the Diocese of Colorado Springs, to consider this.
Yeah. So when we hear at Saint Mark submitted our eighty page petition to Bishop Bilko, we included in their circumstantial evidence for all three potential pathways for opening a cause.
And we included all those because it is truly the bishop's prerogatives to discern which one of these if any am I going to pursue if I opened this cause for canonization, and we wanted to give him as much information as possible and as well as much as you can in a concise form of eighty pages, but giving him that information, and ultimately it's up for him to decide, Yeah, which one am I going to end to gate more to pursue, because especially heroic virtue that you need to
look at all of Kendrick's writings throughout his entire life, and it takes a long, long investigation into that before you can send it on to the Vatican. So it's all three are in Vishupolca courts, and we certainly don't want to try to restrict him on any of those.
Sure, so real quickly we'll just sum up what's the process here for the potential canonization of somebody as a saint? And how long can it take?
Yeah? So what has to start initially as a bishop or religious superior has to look at an individual and say I want to open a cop and if there's what we call a cult of veneration, which means there's a popular piety amongst the people of God to seek somebody's intercession, that is a great sign that there would be support amongst the people of God to raise somebody up to the title of sainthood. And that's where we're
at right now with Kendrick Castillo. Not that the Bishop Bold has opened the cause formally yet, but right now we're testing the waters seeing if there is in fact that movement amongst the people of God to seek his intercession and to want to raise him up to be a saint. And certainly there's been a lot of very positive momentum in that regard. And then once a cause is officially opened and it is approved by the bishop and it is being sent on to Rome, the person
is immediately granted the title of servant of God. Now, servant of God means that your cause for canonization is officially open. A diocese or religious order is actively pursuing having in Canada, and the Vatican is going to be investigating and looking through all the materials presented to it, and they are a ton of materials that goes into
these cases. And once the Vaticant comes back with a decision on the person's life, if, for example, if you're looking at heroic virtue, they're going to go through all of those papers. They're going to go through all the writings, and if they come back with a favorable physician saying yes he did in fact or she in fact lived a heroic life, we are going to call her venerable.
And venerable is not saying the person is in heaven, but merely that they are in fact they were heroic, they were virtuous, and they should be somebody to They are somebody that we should ought to admire or for their virtue and their heroic or their heroic actions. And then if somebody is declared with martyr, they don't need a miracle to be called. What's so they receive the next title, which is called blessed. Blessed the church is
officially saying, yes, this person is absolutely in heaven. We are affirming this and this local area, like the dice in the color of Springs or the United States, this is an example for you all in your country how to live a heroic and virtuous life in order to conform yourself to Jesus Christ. If they are not declared to martyrs, then they need to have at least one confirmed miracle. And again it's a very arduous process. Sure
to have a miracle confirmed by the Vatican. So once they get that miracle again, all bless it for saints. They need to have two. They need to have to confirmed miracles. And at that point again the Church will say, all universal Christians throughout the world, we are saying, this person is an example for all of you of how to live a virtuous life in conformity of Jesus Christ.
It's really interesting. Again we're talking with Reverend Patrick Dilloretto of Saint Mark Catholic Church in Highland's Ranch, which has requested that Bishop James R. Golka of the Diocese of chlor the Springs consider this cause of canonization, presenting an
eighty page packet laying a lot of this out. It is really interesting to getting an understanding of this because when you see a headline such as from uh you know a place like you know, any local TV station saying Colorado teen Kendrick Castillo could become a saint, it raises the question why, how, what's involved? And I appreciate you laying that out. A final question for you before we let you go, what can people do if they feel supportive or call to back this cause? What can
they do to support it? And do you need to be Catholic in that way.
Well, first and foremost prayer, and you don't need to be Catholic in order to pray. You if you see the value in having a symbol of virtue somebody in modern times, for young and all the like, to give them hope that you know, even in the modern world there is a virsue, there are people striving after Christ. That is not wrong to pray that somebody might be shown to be an example for that. And for those who are who feel so called, I would encourage you
seek Kendrick's intercession, asking him for favors. He loved to introduced to people of the prayer. He loves to introduce people to the faith. Maybe if you have a friend who's been a wave from the faith. Maybe if you have a friend who's struggling with the faith, maybe ask his interception, ask him to help that friend or that family member to bring them closer to Jesus, to bring them closer to Christ through Kendrick's prayer and session. And I think that's one of the best things you can do.
And if you feel also called, you can certainly write a letter to Bishop Golka and say Hey, your excellency, I think this is a praise worthy endeavor. I certainly support opening this cause for canonization. Know of my prayers for you and the crew discernment. This is not in any of course to try to like twished his arm well, just to show him, Yes, there is the support amongst
the people of God to open this cause. And some people will say this might take centuries, and it could, but it also looking at the example of Carlo Ocutas who died in two thousand and six, it could just take a day. Sure, he's getting canonized in September. So yeah, God, let me see don according to his will.
Fascinating. Well, Father Patrick di Loreto of Saint Mark Church, I really appreciate you taking some time. I am friends with I have become and had the honor of becoming friends with John and Maria Castillo, Kendrick's parents, and I look at the legacy that he left behind, and it is truly rich. And we have such a powerful example from the life that Kendrick Castillo led and that is embodied in the way in which he sacrificed his life
for others. And so really appreciate the request for this cause of canonization and appreciate you laying out for us. Thank you so much, absolutely pleasure.
Thank you again for having me on and Gon.
Bless you all you as well. Thank you very much, Father Patrick Delorreto