6 beatification causes advance; Father Flanagan of Boys Town declared venerable
March 24, 2026
During a March 23 meeting with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved decrees that advanced six beatification causes.
Pope Leo recognized the offering of life of Cardinal Lodovico Altieri of Albano, Italy (1805-1867), who ministered to victims of a cholera epidemic and died of the disease. In his 2017 apostolic letter Maiorem hac dilectionem, Pope Francis created the “offering of life” as a category analogous to martyrdom in sainthood causes; in recognizing Cardinal Altieri’s offering of life, Pope Leo thus paved the way for his beatification.
Pope Leo also approved decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of five Servants of God, who now may be styled venerable:
- Father Edward Flanagan (1886-1948), who founded the Boys Town orphanage in Nebraska, a work made famous by a 1938 movie
- Father Henri Caffarel (1902-1996), a French priest who founded the Teams of Our Lady
- Sister Barbara Stanisława Samulowska, D.C. (1865-1950), a Polish religious sister who witnessed an approved Marian apparition as a child and became a missionary in Guatemala
- Sister María Dolores Romero Algarín (1916-1977), a Spanish religious sister who served for a time as a missionary in Brazil
- Giuseppe Castagnetti (1909-1965), an Italian mayor and father of twelve who received spiritual direction from Padre Pio and became a Third Order Franciscan. (The Holy See Press Office stated inaccurately that he died in 1975.)
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