The Vatican is running a two-month course on how to make saints.
The two-month March course is bringing together 80 students from around the world to train them in the skills needed to advance the cause of their potential saint. Patience, attention to detail and being prepared to commit to what might be decades of work, are skills and attitudes required by “Postulators“.
The Congregation for the Cause for Saints runs the course to meet the demand and “because it’s the only entity that can teach both the theory and the practice,” Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the Congregation said.
Sainthood is a two-stage process, beatification, then canonisation as a saint. Except in the case of martyrs, one miracle is needed before a person can be beatified and then another before a person is canonised.
Dr Patrizio Polisca, head of the Congregation’s medical commission says the commission makes no judgement about miracles. “Miracles are a theological judgement”, he said.
“The only thing a scientist can say is that a healing does or does not have a biological explanation.”
The Congregation requires a person to have completed the course before being certified as a Postulator.
Sources
Catholic News Service
Times of India
Wikipedia
Image: ABC Religion and Ethics
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News category: World.
