(ANS - Vatican City) - On Thursday, 16 January 2014, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General, handed in to the Chancellery of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Positio on the life, virtues and reputation of sanctity of the Servant of God Jose Wech Vandor.

The reporter of the Positio was Father Zdzisław Kijas, OFM Conv​​, with Dr. Maria Ludovica Zanet as collaborator. A special mention must be made of the Salesian Fr Raffaele Giordano, vice-postulator, to whom the cause for beatification and canonization of Fr Vandor was entrusted at the diocesan stage. He devoted himself energetically to the cause until the end of his life.

The “Position” outlines in depth and with a critical approach all the documents and testimonies regarding the heroic virtues of the Servant of God. It consists of a brief presentation by the Reporter; the “informatio” which is the theological part that proves that the Servant of God practised all the Christian virtues to a heroic degree; and the “Summarium”with testimonies and documents. After it is handed in, the “Positio” will have to await its turn before it can be examined by the theologians who act as Consultants for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Fr José Vandor, was born in Dorog, Hungary on 29 October 1909. Later he told his parish priest Fr Arturo Pehatsek, that he wanted to become a priest and a missionary. So he introduced him to the Salesian Institute in Peliföldszentkereszt, where Fr Vandor began his Salesian formation and completed his novitiate making his first profession in 1928.

Eight years later on  5 July 1936, he was ordained a priest in Turin and returned to Hungary  to celebrate the occasion with his family. The same year he was sent as a missionary  to Cuba, and fulfilled a dream he had kept hidden in his heart from when he was a child.

Going good and caring for the salvation of souls will be his sole concern during 40 years working in Cuba. His personality, his spirituality and his pastoral creativity made a deep impression on the diocese of Santa Clara, where Fr Vandor arrived on 9 December 1954, with the purpose of building the “Rosa Pérez Velasco” Arts and Trades Institute, and taking pastoral care of the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Fr Vandor can be compared to St. Francis de Sales for his patient docility, prudent dedication and enlightened wisdom in the spiritual direction of souls, and to St. John Bosco for his apostolic dynamism, love for the poor, spirit of faith, serene joy and cordial manners. He died in Santa Clara on 8 October 1979.

Published 20/01/2014