Miracles of healing will have to be checked against new rules.
Pope Francis has approved revised norms to ensure transparency.
Historical and scientific accuracy are also important factors.
The Congregation of Saints Causes must have at least six medical experts on a Consultation Team panel.
Two-thirds of the team must approve a statement declaring a healing has no natural or scientific explanation.
In the past the declaration had to be approved by a majority of the consultation team members.
The team’s approval was a key step before the Pope could recognise a miracle.
He could then attribute it to the intercession of a candidate for sainthood.
“The … regulation is for the good of the (saints’) causes, which can never be separated from the historical and scientific truth of the alleged miracles,” Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the congregation, said
Bartolucci led a seven-member commission that began revising the regulations last year.
The aim was to update the norms established by St. John Paul II in 1983.
Apart from martyrs, two miracles are usually needed for a person to be declared a saint.
One is for beatification and the second for canonization.
The new regulations also change the number of times an alleged miracle can be examined.
They now say it “cannot be re-examined more than three times.”
A Medical Consultation team with up to seven experts examines the miracles.
If the promoter of a cause appeals a negative judgment, a new Medical Consultation team is appointed.
The Consultation team members must be are unknown to the postulator.
The promotor of the specific cause is the postulator.
A presumed miracle is first reviewed by two medical experts within the congregation.
Then with their recommendation it is then sent to the Medical Consultation team.
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