Beatification and canonization cause news from the last month

Currently, there are 33 Doctors of the Church, and there is a proposal before the Vatican to make St. Juan of Avila, whose feast is May 10 and whose writings were very influential at the Council of Trent, number 34.

On April 25, Donald Cardinal Wuerl formally opened the beatification cause of Mary Virginia Merrick, foundress of the Christ Child Society and a remarkable woman.

Diocese of Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia has formally opened the beatification cause of Cora Louisa Yorgason Evans, a Mormon who came into the true Church at age 30. She was a mystic, visionary, and stigmatist.

Next Thursday, May 12, Norberta Cardinal Rivera y Carrera of Mexico City will oversee the transfer of the remains of the Servant of God Luis Maria Martinez, late archibishop of the Federal District, from the crypt to a chapel in the city's cathedral. Archbishop Martinez served as the ordinary for Mexico's capital from 1937-1956, a time of great upheavel in the wake the tumultuous Cristero War.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved an examination of the Servant of God Teofilo Camomot's life. The late auxiliary bishop of Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, was forced by ill health to simply function as a simple priest in the Archdiocese of Cebu. Bishop Camomot is sometimes called "the Philippine Padre Pio," because he reportedly had the gift of bilocation and there was this mystical scent of roses, and levitation. When it was exhumed for the purpose of transferring it, his body was completely intact.

In other Philippine sainthood news, Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu has dismissed a flury of rumors that Visayan martyr Bl. Pedro Calungsod has been proclaimed a saint.

The Holy See has approved the opening of the beatification cause for the Servant of God Paul Xu Guangqi, who lived from 1562 to 1633. He was a Chinese scientist, astronomer and mathematician and collaborator of Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, himself a candidate for beatification.

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has officially approved the opening of the beatification cause of the late Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn, who was a tremendous servant to the black people of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Jamaica, NY.

The beatification processes for both Audrey Stephenson and Audrey Santo could begin early next year. Audrey Santo, of course, is the young woman who became bedridden and incapable of communication after falling into a pool at age 3 and then being given incompetent medical care. She died at age 23 with a reputation as a miracle worker. Audrey Stephenson is a little girl who died at age 8 of leukemia who was a little St. Therese. She possessed more holiness at age 4 than most people attain in a lifetime. While it seems Santo’s cause is still in the beginning stages, Stephenson’s beatification effort simply lacks a postulator. They thought they had one, but his superior thought him too busy to take on this additional work.

Pope Benedict XVI has approved beatification for Catholic economist and sociologist Giuseppe Toniolo. He made it safe for Catholics to reenter public life, kept the Masons from gaining complete control in Italy , and his scholarship paved the way for Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum.

Later this month, Peoria Bishop Daniel J. Jenky will present the Holy Father with the positio summarizing Abp. Fulton Sheen's life and holiness.

On April 2, His Holiness approved decrees of beatification for 5 people through the regular process and 23 through martyrdom (one from the French Revolution and the rest from the Spanish Civil War). One of the new beati is Ven. Clemente Vismara, a PIME priest who died of natural causes in 1988 and who lived 65 of his 91 years in the jungle of Burma. Pope Benedict also issued decrees making six individuals Venerable.

Finally, on April 2, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church canonized the thousands of men, women, and children massacred by the Ottoman Turks during the failed 1876 April Uprising in that country.