Now 'Venerable,' Paul VI moves closer to beatification

December 20, 2012

Pope Paul VI has moved closer to beatification, as Pope Benedict XVI approved a decree proclaiming the “heroic virtue” of the Pontiff who closed Vatican II and wrote the landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae.

Pope Paul VI will now be titled “Venerable,” and will be eligible for beatification if the Vatican approves a miracle accomplished through his intercession.

The decree regarding Venerable Paul VI was one of 23 decrees authorized by Pope Benedict during a private audience on December 20 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The decrees advanced the causes of 52 candidates for beatification or canonization, nearly all of them priests or religious—including a large number of martyrs from the years of the Spanish Civil War.

The decrees approved by that Congregation:

• certified miracles through the intercession of 3 candidates who have already been beatified and are now eligible for canonization;
  1. Blessed Antonio Primaldo e Compagni (d. 1480),
  2. Blessed Laura Montoya (C1874-1949), a Colombian religious; and
  3. Blessed Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (1878-1963), a Mexican religious.
• approved miracles through the intercession of 5 other candidates who have now fulfilled the requirements for beatification;
1. Antonio Franco (1585-1626), an Italian bishop;
2. Jose Gabriele del Rosario Brochero (1840-1914), an Argentine priest;
3. Cristobal of St. Catherine (1638-1690), an Italian priest;
4. Sofia Czeska-Maciejowska (1584-1650), a Polish religious; and
5. Margherita Lucia Szewczyk (1584-1650), also a Polish religious.
• attested to the martyrdom of 35 candidates, who may now also be beatified;
1. Miroslav Bulesic, a Croatian priest who died under Communist persecution in 1947;
2. José Javier Gorosterratzu, a Spanish Redemptorist, and 5 companions, who died in the Spanish Civil War between 1967 and 1938;
3. Father Riccardo Gil Barcelon and Antonio Arrue Peiro, who died in the Spanish Civil War in 1936;
4. Manuel de la Sagrada Familia, a Spanish monk who died in the Spanish Civil War in 1936;
5. Maria di Monserrat, a Spanish nun, and 8 companions, who died along with Lucrezia Garcia y Solanas, a laywoman, in the Spanish Civil War in 1936; and
6. Melchora de la Adoración Cortés and 14 companions of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who died in the Spanish Revolution between 1936 and 1937.
• and proclaimed the heroic virtue of 9 candidates, including Paul VI, who will now be eligible for beatification with the approval of a miracle.
1. Giovanni Battista Montini (1897-1978), Pope Paul VI;
2. Francesco Saverio Petagna (1812-1878), an Italian bishop;
3. Juan José Santiago Bonal Cortada (1769-1829), a Spanish religious;
4. Louis-Marie Baudouin (1765-1835), a French priest;
5. Marcelina de San José (1874-1959), a Venezuelan religious;
6. Claudia Russo (1889-1964); an Italian religious;
7. Maria Francisca de las Llagas (1874-1964), an Ecuadoran religious;
8. Ludmilla Szczesna (1863-1916), a Polish religious; and
9. Consuelo Joaquina Maria Mercedes Barceló y Pagés (1857-1940), a Spanish religious.

 

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Further information:

• Decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (VIS)
• Pope Paul VI moving closer to beatification? (CWN 12/14)