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VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has designated a cardinal to stand in for him at a beatification ceremony later this month in a shift from his predecessor who declared more “blesseds” and saints than all his predecessors over the past 500 years combined.
The head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, will celebrate the Mass on May 14 to beatify a Franciscan nun who worked in Hawaii and the co-founder of a missionary society in Spain.
In another change, the Mass will be held on a Saturday afternoon inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Weather permitting, Pope John Paul II would hold his saint-making ceremonies in St. Peter’s Square to encourage huge turnouts of the faithful on Sunday mornings.
Saraiva Martins told Vatican Radio on Wednesday that Benedict was merely reverting to the accepted practice at the Vatican that pre-dated John Paul, whereby the pope would designate a bishop and cardinal to preside over beatifications. The pope himself would celebrate canonizations.
That practice changed in 1971 when Pope Paul VI himself celebrated the Mass to beatify Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who gave his life for a man at Auschwitz.
“That was the first time it happened,” Saraiva Martins said.
John Paul, though, continued the tradition - particularly in his many travels around the world, the cardinal said. During his 26-year pontificate, John Paul beatified 1,338 people and canonized 482 - more than all his predecessors over the past five centuries combined.
His output had raised some eyebrows that the Vatican was making too many saints and that the distinction between someone who had been beatified and canonized was getting blurred, said John-Peter Pham, a Vatican analyst.
“The theologian in Benedict wants to restore the balance,” Pham said.
One miracle is needed for someone to be beatified; two to be declared a saint. . .
apnews.myway.com/article/20050504/D89SJ8000.html
The head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, will celebrate the Mass on May 14 to beatify a Franciscan nun who worked in Hawaii and the co-founder of a missionary society in Spain.
In another change, the Mass will be held on a Saturday afternoon inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Weather permitting, Pope John Paul II would hold his saint-making ceremonies in St. Peter’s Square to encourage huge turnouts of the faithful on Sunday mornings.
Saraiva Martins told Vatican Radio on Wednesday that Benedict was merely reverting to the accepted practice at the Vatican that pre-dated John Paul, whereby the pope would designate a bishop and cardinal to preside over beatifications. The pope himself would celebrate canonizations.
That practice changed in 1971 when Pope Paul VI himself celebrated the Mass to beatify Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who gave his life for a man at Auschwitz.
“That was the first time it happened,” Saraiva Martins said.
John Paul, though, continued the tradition - particularly in his many travels around the world, the cardinal said. During his 26-year pontificate, John Paul beatified 1,338 people and canonized 482 - more than all his predecessors over the past five centuries combined.
His output had raised some eyebrows that the Vatican was making too many saints and that the distinction between someone who had been beatified and canonized was getting blurred, said John-Peter Pham, a Vatican analyst.
“The theologian in Benedict wants to restore the balance,” Pham said.
One miracle is needed for someone to be beatified; two to be declared a saint. . .
apnews.myway.com/article/20050504/D89SJ8000.html
