VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis issued decrees recognizing that 12 candidates for sainthood, including U.S. Sacred Heart Brother Norbert McAuliffe, lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way. The decrees promulgated by the pope May 19 are the first major step in the sainthood process. A miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession would be needed before beatification and another miracle would be needed for the person’s canonization. Brother McAuliffe was born Sept. 30, 1886, in New York. After joining the missionary Brothers of the Sacred Heart, he was sent to Uganda, where he founded the order’s first mission in Gulu, in the north of the country. He died there July 3, 1959. Among the other decrees was one recognizing the “heroic virtues” of Polish Cardinal August Hlond, archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw during World War II. He died in 1948. A Colombian bishop, Bishop Miguel Angel Builes Gomez of Santa Rosa de Osos, who died in 1971, also was among the candidates whose causes advanced. A Colombian bishop, Bishop Miguel Angel Builes Gomez of Santa Rosa de Osos, who died in 1971, also was among the candidates whose causes advanced. The others were five priests and four religious women including one known as the “Angel of Auschwitz,” Trinitarian Sister Angela Maria Autsch. Born in Germany, she entered a novitiate in Austria. Turned in to the Gestapo by a Nazi informant who had heard she criticized Hitler, she was held in the Innsbruck jail before being sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp and, eventually, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she died Dec. 23, 1944, just a month before the Allies liberated the camp. On Oct. 14, Pope Francis will declare Blesseds Oscar Romero, Paul VI and four others saints at the Vatican during the meeting of the world Synod of Bishops. Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down during Mass on March 24, 1980.
Pope clears way for three new saints, including first woman from Venezuela Pope Francis has cleared the way for the canonizations of three blesseds: an Armenian Catholic archbishop martyred during the Armenian genocide, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during World War II and a Venezuelan religious sister who dedicated her life to education and the poor.
Pope to canonize Acutis, Frassati, host meeting on children’s rights Pope Francis announced that he will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati next year and that the Vatican will host a world meeting on the rights of the child Feb. 3.
Saints hold lessons for bringing peace to world, bishop tells synod With war and violence plaguing so many parts of the world, Christians can look to the saints to discover from their example the true meaning of peace, Maronite Auxiliary Bishop Paul Rouhana of Beirut told participants at the Synod of Bishops.