Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2017 / 14:59 pm
The sainthood cause for Lakota medicine man and Catholic catechist Nicholas Black Elk took another step forward today, as the U.S. bishops unanimously approved his canonical consultation.
The Nov. 14 voice vote of the bishops took place at their annual fall assembly in Baltimore, and is the latest in a series of steps on the path to sainthood.
The motion to vote on the cause was brought forward by Bishop Robert D. Gruss of Rapid City, South Dakota, the home diocese of Black Elk where his cause was officially opened earlier this year.
Even before his conversion to Catholicism, Black Elk was a prominent medicine man "widely known as a holy man and a mystic," Bishop Gruss told the assembly of bishops.