Oreste Benzi

Oreste Benzi (7 September 1925 - 2 November 2007) was an Italian Catholic priest and founder of the Pope John XXIII Community Association. Benzi championed the rights of the individual and founded his association to aid teenagers in their lives and their path to Jesus Christ while also striving to evangelize to those including the destitute.

The beatification process commenced in 2014 under Pope Francis. Benzi is titled as a Servant of God.

Life Oreste Benzi was born in San Clemente on 7 September 1925 as the seventh of nine children to the poor Achille Benzi and Rosa Silvagni. Rosa instilled a sense of great piousness in her children.

His movement is now present in a total of 27 European countries as well as being present in Asia and Africa as well as Latin America; amongst the nations it operates in are the United Kingdom and Australia.

Beatification process The beatification process commenced under Pope Francis on 3 January 2014 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official nihil obstat and named him as a Servant of God; the Bishop of Rimini Francesco Lambiasi inaugurated the diocesan process on 27 September 2014 and it is still ongoing.

The postulator for this cause - since its beginning - is Elisabetta Casadei.

Selected writings Benzi wrote more than sixty books during his life, many of which are untranslated into English as of 2019. Along with his activity of missionary and educator among the young children, he was devoted to the prayer in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints. He is the author of some unusual spiritual writings on the Real Presence the Triune of God into the human heart, ls called as Mistical Union of Christ. In such a way, he shared a spiritual life like the one testified by Itala Mela and Chiara Lubich.