Word: sainthood
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...17th century, the Vatican's standards for sainthood were formalized. A non-martyr would need to have performed four posthumous miracles, usually spontaneous healings. (Today, the church requires a team of doctors to verify their veracity and prove that miraculous healings were not the result of modern medicine.) The process included two major steps: beatification, the pope's recognition that a person is worthy of consideration, which begins a lengthy investigation process; and canonization, the pope's formal recognition that a person is truly a saint. In each case the argument for sainthood would be rebutted by a Devil...
...Catholics revered as saints were martyrs who died under Roman persecution in the first centuries after Jesus Christ was born. These martyrs were honored as saints almost instantaneously after their deaths, as Catholics who had sacrificed their lives in the name of God. Over the next few centuries, however, sainthood was extended to those who had defended the faith and led pious lives. With the criteria for canonization not as strict, the number of saints soared by the sixth and seventh centuries. Bishops stepped in to oversee the process, and around 1200, Pope Alexander III, outraged over the proliferation, decreed...
...German Pope's many gestures of goodwill toward Jews during his three-year papacy was to effectively suspend the internal Vatican process that leads to sainthood for Pius, citing a need for a "period of reflection." Now, however, Benedict appears to have finished his own reflecting on the historical virtues of the Italian Pope who reigned from 1939 to 1958. At a special Mass on Thursday marking 50 years since Pius' death, Benedict praised his wartime predecessor's actions to save Jews and called on Catholics to "pray that the cause of his beatification goes forward smoothly." Beatification...
Though Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Benedict's homily Thursday does not necessarily mean that Pius will be beatified, it does seem as though the road to sainthood has now been reopened by the unequivocal words of the Pope...
...Pope to visit a synagogue, has built a bridge in Catholic-Jewish relations that remains solid. Benedict appreciates the importance of that bridge, but he has also shown a tendency to forge ahead with what he thinks is right for his church. In diplomatic terms, perhaps the cause for sainthood for a still controversial Nazi-era pontiff could use a somewhat longer "period of reflection." And maybe a Pope from another country. - With reporting by Francesco Peloso / Rome