From Chiesa
Vatican Diary / In a few months, six new saints canonized outside the rules
That is, without a miracle verified after their beatification. It is an exceptional procedure, rarely used in the past. But Pope Francis is availing himself of it with unprecedented frequency
VATICAN CITY, March 19, 2014 – Receiving in audience Bernardo Álvarez Afonso, bishop of San Cristóbal de la Laguna in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, Pope Francis announced to him that next April 2 he will proclaim as a saint an illustrious son of those islands, the Jesuit José de Anchieta (1534-1597), called the Apostle of Brazil (in the illustration).
The news had already been anticipated at the end of February by Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida and president of the Brazilian episcopal conference.
But Bishop Álvarez released the news on the website of his diocese on the same day as the audience, March 8, providing further details on the event.
He explained, in fact, that Anchieta will be inscribed in the list of saints together with two blesseds born in France who played a leading role in the evangelization of Canada: the missionary mystic Marie of the Incarnation (née Marie Guyart, 1599-1672), and Bishop François de Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708).
The three were beatified by John Paul II on June 22, 1980, together with two other venerables who had lived in the Americas, who in the meantime had already been canonized according to the ordinary procedure: Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur (1626-1667) and the young Native American virgin Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1980), proclaimed saints, respectively, by John Paul II on July 30, 2002 and by Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.
Everything by the book? No. The bishop of Tenerife has revealed that the three blesseds will be proclaimed saints not according to the ordinary procedure, which demands the canonical recognition of a miracle attributed to their intercession, but through a historically extraordinary channel called the “canonization equivalent.”
The nature of this special procedure, which “has always been present in the Church and has been employed regularly, if not frequently,” was illustrated in “L’Osservatore Romano” on October 12, 2013 by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the congregation for the causes of saints.
The cardinal explains:
“For such a canonization, according to the teaching of Benedict XIV, three elements are required: an ancient tradition of devotion, the constant and common attestation of trustworthy historians on the virtues or martyrdom, and the uninterrupted fame of miracles.”
Cardinal Amato continues:
“If these conditions are satisfied – again according to the teaching of pope Prospero Lambertini – the supreme pontiff, by his authority, can proceed with the ‘canonization equivalent,’ meaning the extension to the universal Church of the recitation of the divine office and the celebration of the Mass [in honor of the new saint], ‘without any definitive formal sentence, without any preliminary juridical process, without having carried out the usual ceremonies.'”
In effect, pope Lambertini himself – in one tome of his monumental work “De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione” now available in Italian from Libreria Editrice Vaticana – enumerates twelve cases of saints canonized in this way before his pontificate (1740-1758).
They are: Romuald (canonized in 1595), Norbert (1621), Bruno (1623), Peter Nolasco (1655), Raymond Nonnatus (1681), Stephen of Hungary (1686), Margaret of Scotland (1691), John of Matha and Felix of Valois (1694), Gregory VII (1728), Wenceslaus of Bohemia (1729), Gertrude of Helfta (1738).
Also in “L’Osservatore Romano” of last October 12, Cardinal Amato then enumerates the “canonization equivalents” after Benedict XIV: Peter Damian and the martyr Boniface (canonized in 1828); Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica (1880); Cyril of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Justin Martyr and Augustine of Canterbury (1882); John Damascene and the abbot Sylvester (1890); Bede the venerable (1899); Ephrem the Syrian (1920); Albert the Great (1931); Margaret of Hungary (1943); Gregorio Barbarigo (1960); John of Avila and Nicola Taveli? and three companion martyrs (1970); Marko Krizin, István Pongrácz, and Melchior Grodziecki (1995).
As can be noted, John Paul II, although he proclaimed more saints and blesseds than all his predecessors put together – since the popes have reserved this power to themselves – used only once the procedure of the “canonization equivalent.”
Benedict XVI also used it only once, with Hildegard of Bingen, whom he proclaimed a saint on May 10, 2012.
Pope Francis, however, has already used this exceptional procedure twice. On October 9, 2013 with Angela da Foligno (1248-1309) and the following December 17 with the Jesuit Peter Faber (1506-1546).
And he will use it a third time, proclaiming three new saints, next April 2, with the Jesuit Anchieta, Sister Marie Guyart, and Bishop François de Montmorency-Laval.
In practice the current pontiff, in just one year of pontificate, has had recourse to this special means more times than anyone other than Leo XIII, who used it a bit more, although this was over a span of twenty years (between 1880 and 1899) and was applied to persons of the first millennium of the Christian era, with the sole exception of the abbot Sylvester, who however lived in the remote 14th century.
In short, although Pope Francis loves the simple title of bishop of Rome he is fully exercising even in canonization policy the prerogatives that are his as supreme pontiff of the universal Church. A policy that is particularly delicate because, in spite of the contrary opinions found among theologians, according to the doctrine in effect canonizations – unlike beatifications – engage the infallible magisterium of the Church.
In 1989, in fact, when the motu proprio “Ad tuendam fidem” of John Paul II was promulgated, in a subsequent “doctrinal note” connected to it and signed by then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger “the canonizations of saints” were explicitly cited among “the doctrines infallibly proposed” by the Church “in a definitive way,” together with other doctrines like the reservation of priestly ordination for men only, the illicit nature of euthanasia, the illicit nature of prostitution and fornication, the legitimacy of the election of a pope or of the celebration of an ecumenical council, the declaration of Leo XIII on the invalidity of Anglican orders.
In this area, therefore, it is also striking that Pope Francis has decided to proceed with the canonization of John XXIII – which will be celebrated next April 27 – according to the ordinary procedure but without the canonical certification of a miracle attributed to his intercession and having taken place after his beatification.
This is a particularly glaring departure. Precisely by exercising his power as supreme pontiff Francis has determined that in order to canonize Angelo Roncalli, in a completely exceptional manner, there is no need for a miracle and it is enough that he has the enduring reputation of holiness that surrounds his person and the “fama signorum,” or the graces that are attributed to him, which continue to be testified to although none of them has been canonically certified as a genuine miracle.
In practice, here as well Francis has exploited to the highest degree the pontifical power at his disposal as head of the universal Church, in order to take upon himself a decision that seems to have no precedent when it comes to cases not concerning martyrs.
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For more news on the canonizations determined by Pope Francis.
> Vatican Diary / Those saints made as he commands (15.7.2013)
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The 1998 note attached to the 1989 motu proprio of John Paul II “Ad tuendam fidem,” which includes the canonizations of saints among the infallible doctrines:
> Nota dottrinale illustrativa…
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Other particulars on the upcoming “canonization equivalent” of the Jesuit José de Anchieta:
The Biblical False Prophet Has Arrived 