John Paul I One Step Closer to Beatification
Here is the article. You can find the Italian original here.
TOWARDS THE BEATIFICATION OF PAPA LUCIANI
The Decree de validitate has been signed and the relator of the positio has been named.
On June 27 (2008), the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints has signed the decree of validity on the acts of the diocesan process for the beatification of Papa Luciani (according to canonical terminology, this is the decretum de validitate, about the validity of the acts of the diocesan investigation).
The diocesan investigation, which was carried out, exceptionally, in the diocese of Belluno-Feltre, instead of in Rome (usually the investigation takes place in the place where the Servant of God died) lasted from 2003 to 2005: 170 testimonies were collected in Belluno, Venice and Rome, in 203 sessions.
The cause also involved the nomination of a group of experts and theologians, who expressed an opinion on the published writings of the Servant of God, and the work of a historical commission that tracked down all the unpublished documents on the life and work of Papa Luciani, and has drawn up a spiritual and pastoral profile of his life.
At the same time that the decretum de validitate was issued, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints name the relator in this phase of the process: the relator is Father Cristoforo Bove, from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. “To use a comparison,” says Fr. Giorgio Lise, the vice-postulator of the cause of John Paul I, “the relator has at this moment a task similar to the director of a doctoral thesis: he follows the iter of the preparation of the position and then, before a plenary meeting of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, made up of cardinals, bishops and officials of the congregation, presents for examination to positio, a critical study of what has emerged from the instructory and historical commissions; this should bring forth the proofs that the Servant of God has exercised the Christian virtues in an heroic manner.”
In the document nominating Father Bove, signed by Cardinal Saraiva Martins, his collaborator in drawing up the position was also named: Dr. Stefania Falasca, of Rome, a journalist who works for the monthly magazine 30 Giorni: She is the author of the recent book Mio fratello Albino, made up of the recollections of [John Paul I's sister] Antonia Luciani.
Father Bove, born in 1948, is a native of the province of Naples: a teacher of Church history at the Pontifical Gregorian University and at the Pontifical Institute Antonianum, was the relator of the cause of beatification of Padre Pio de Pietrelcina, and of other servants of God, including the Franciscan Cardinal Massaia, a missionary in Africa.
From the Vatican also comes the news that the postulator of the cause, the Salesian Don Enrico Dal Covolo, has been invited to Puglia to the closing of the process on the miracle attributed to the intercession of Papa Luciani: this miracle, as is well known, is in regard to the cure from malignant lymphoma of a Catholic man from the Puglia area. “The process came to an end,” Msgr Lise says again, “in May in the diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti, where this man cured of cancer lives. In this case as well, many testimonies were collected, in addition to the examination of the medical documentation.”
How will the closing of the process on the miracle take place?
“In September, Msgr Lise answers, “the whole of the documentation gathered will be sealed before the bishop of that diocese, Mario Paciello, and the witnesses, and then sent to Rome. The closing will take place along the lines of what took place in the Cathedral of Belluno on November 10, 2006. The Congregation will also have to make a pronouncement of the validity of the process on the miracle.”
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Diana Ratkowski
Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Recently, my 89 hear old father was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. We heard the news that he had a gigantic mass on his left lung. The doctor was worried about this huge mass, which the family assumed it was cancer. I praye to Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II and Father Solanus Casey to please pray to the Blessed Virgin as well as to Jesus to intercede for my Dad and not make it cancer. I promised tht if my prayers were answered I would write about their assistance. After the normal test and consulting with specialists, my father’s internists informed the family that it looks like my father had a former infection and the mass was probably a part of a collapsed lung, (wlhich posed no problem) and there was only 1% chance that it was cancerous. So with the help of three future saints, my prayers were answered.