Pope Benedict canonizes three saints

VATICAN CITY, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI on the 85th World Mission Sunday renewed the Catholic Church's commitment to the missionary movement by canonizing three saints.

The 85th World Mission Sunday was created by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and is observed yearly every fourth Sunday in October as a day of propaganda missions and prayer.

One of the saints was Spanish -- Sister Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro, founder of the Congregation of the Servants of St. Joseph -- and two were Italian -- Father Luigi Guanella, the founder of the Servants of Charity and the Institute of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, and Archbishop Guido Maria Conforti of Parma, who also founded the Xaverian Missionaries, Vatican Radio reported.

Benedict said love of one's neighbor is "the visible sign that the Christian can show the world to witness God's love" and the saints "loved the Lord with all their heart and their neighbor as themselves so as to become a model for all believers."

The pope's message centered on evangelization, which, he said, "involves everyone, everything always. The church is missionary by her very nature. The work of spreading the Gospel is a joint responsibility of all," the Manila Bulletin.com reported.