Twenty years ago, in April 2003, the Heroic Virtues of Father Eustáquio were promulgated, making him venerable, a very important step towards beatification and subsequent canonization.

For the Latin Rite Catholic Church, the canonical title of Venerable is granted to those who are posthumously recognized as having practiced heroic virtues in a formal canonization process. These virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

This means that Father Eustace was considered not only a good person on earth, but a person who sought to live the same life that God the Father asks of us.

Before being considered venerable, a candidate for sainthood must be the subject of a proclamation approved by the Pope, which recognizes, without a shadow of a doubt, that the candidate lived a life of heroic virtue, that is, that he or she demonstrated the practice of virtues in an exceptional way, as a true hero of the faith.

Only after being considered venerable can the canonization process proceed to the beatification stage, which happened with Father Eustáquio, who, three years later, would be beatified on June 15, 2006, at the Mineirão stadium in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.