Vatican City, Sep 8, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Vatican reconfirmed today that Pope Benedict XVI plans to canonize five blesseds and declare 26 beatifications later this month. Many see the act as a sign that the Pope shows no desire to slow down the canonization momentum started by Pope John Paul II, who canonized more saints than any pope in history.
On October 23, the same day as the closing of the worldwide Eucharistic Synod, the Pope will canonize: Blesseds Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, a Jesuit priest who died in 1952; Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski of Lviv of the Latins, who died in 1923; Sygmund Gorazdowski, a priest, and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who died in 1920; Gaetano Catanoso, a priest, and founder of the Congregation of the Veronica Sisters of the Holy Countenance, who died in 1963; and Felice da Nicosia, of the Friars Minor Capuchin. He died in 1787.
Pope Benedict broke with recent tradition earlier this year, returning to an older Church practice in which the Pope does not preside over beatification ceremonies himself.
He will continue this practice, which hasn’t been active since 1971, with the October 9th beatification of Servant of God Bishop Clemens August von Galen of Munster, Germany, a cardinal of Holy Roman Church, who died in 1946. The ceremony will take place at St. Peter’s Basilica.