The Christian Brother with responsibility for advancing the sainthood cause of the congregation's founder, Blessed Edmund Rice said the candidate for canonisation and former Irish businessman was a "model" for fair dealing in business particularly at a time of economic downturn caused by the "reckless greed and dishonesty" of some business people.
Br Donal Blake has been the Roman Postulator of Blessed Edmund Rice since 2003 and was appointed to liaise with the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints (CCS). In a letter to the Christian Brothers congregation expressing his hope that Blessed Edmund Rice will soon be canonised, he said the founder was an "exemplar of integrity" and a model for those involved in business."I suggest that we need look no further than Blessed Edmund Rice," Br Blake said.
"He was known as a model of fair dealing in his many years as a businessman. He gave many a loan to people who could never approach a bank.
"His hand was ever open to the poor and he became executor of many charities so that the widow and the orphan might receive what was rightly theirs in many wills and bequests that were often contested by a bigoted and heartless bureaucracy," Br Blake said.
He suggested Blessed Edmund Rice was a model and patron for honest business people with a social conscience.
"At the present moment in world history we are very conscious of the vast economic downturn that is affecting every country," Br Blake wrote.
"We are appalled at the reckless greed and dishonesty of some in the business and banking world who have brought this about," he said.
Br Blake said the status of Blessed Edmund Rice's cause for canonisation had gained momentum since he was declared "Blessed" by Pope John Paul II on October 6, 1996.
"I am occasionally asked at what stage is the Edmund Rice cause today," Br Blake said.
"A simplistic answer is that we now require one more miracle of healing before approaching the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
"We have been looking at a number of exceptional healings in Australia, Canada, the United States, West Indies, England and Ireland, but the answer is a little more involved."
He said the Congregation for the Causes of Saints informed him that three issue remain to expedite Blessed Edmund Rice's canonisation in the coming years. These include: the relevance of Blessed Edmund Rice today; existence of a lively devotion to him; and one miraculous cure from a life threatening illness.
