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This was on BBC this evening. I am sure there are other articles and commentaries on this subject forthcoming.

Vatican slows sainthood process - BBC article [news.bbc.co.uk]

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

All that the new directives and guidelines are actually proposing or changing is at the initial stages... The Vatican is asking for more due dilligence on the part of the postulators of causes before sending the app off to Rome.

Father Marciel Delgollado's mother may have been pious... but her cause is really worth consideration? I smell a pet cause.

But from what I have read, the Vatican proposals in no way preclude just as many canonizations and beatifications as JP2 presided over... so long as their are worthy candidates. They more or less seem to be asking the dioceses to make sure they are a little more circumspect about what causes they send to rome. For some places the MO seems to have been "compile a file, send it to Rome, let them sort it out"!

In the 3 years that Pope Benedict XVI has been pope, some 500 people have been beatified, compared to John Paul II's nearly 1,400 over 26 years.

That doesn't include the 800 martyrs of Otranto, whose cultus was approved last year.

There's no slowdown at all

556 to be precise.

It has been about five centuries since the process was last revised, so it seems reasonable to consider it again!

Fr. Serge

It seems to me that miracles should not be required. Isn't true (correct me if I am mistaken), that in the early church, martyrs typically became saints?

As far as I am concerned people like Theodore Romzha, Paul Goidic, and Mykolay Charnetsky are already Saints.

Miracles are not required in the beatification and canonization of martyrs.

Fr. Serge

I haven't been able to find the exact changes... Everything I so far read about indicates that it has far more to do with how the causes are introduced. The Vatican seems to be raising the bar a little for entering the race, so to speak... But the reace course is the same!

A lot of those processes were already started long before Pope Benedict's august reign.

Alexis

The centuries-old laws on inquiries, beatification, and canonization in the Catholic Church were entirely abrogated by Pope John Paul II with the issuance of his Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister on 25 January 1983.

Upon his instruction, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the "New Laws for the Causes of Saints," or the "Norms," about a week later on 07 February 1983.

The aforecited Apostolic Constitution and the Norms implementing it are the current "law" on the declaration of sainthood in the Catholic Church.

However, there are now two amendments or clarifications to the "law":

(1) The Congregation issued a Communique on 29 September 2005 allowing the beatification of a Servant of God in the diocese itself and to be presided over by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints or by any Cardinal deputed to do so. Thus, a beatification ceremony need not be presided over by the Pope anymore.

(2) The Congregation issued an "Instruction," Sanctorum Mater, last Monday, 18 February 2008, on the procedures of "Diocesan and Eparchial Enquiries for the Causes of Saints," subject of this thread, which lays out stricter standards during the inquiry process at the diocesan level.

This stricter standard naturally may slow down the process of canonization but, except for a few, the declaration of sainthood for anyone has always been at a snail's pace!

Amado

Oops, beatified 563 people and created 14 new saints...

Fr. Serge,

If miracles are not required in the case of martyrs, what can be done to speed the process for their canonization?

Dave

SS,


Also, I think that what is on the Pope's mind is an ongoing effort to encourage the episcopate to take responsibility for all those functions which are properly those of the bishop of the place. Perhaps, in time (much time probably) it will be "normal" to see local saints canonized by the local bishop. [I doubt that will happen generally until it is clear that the local bishops have the idea, and the will, that that falls within their purview. At that time, I imagine, those "local" saints whose cultus has genuinely become universal will then be added to the calendar of the universal Church by the Pope. Kind of like in the old days.]

Actually, a miracle is required for canonization, but not required for beatification: http://usccb.org/comm/SaintsFinal.pdf

I agree. Before recent times, the rule was to wait at least 100 years before the canonization process started. This way things could be looked at more objectively.