(PCM) Saints are created by the Catholic Church as a way to provide role models for it’s followers and the Vatican has recently revealed that they will now be naming Mother Teresa a saint in the coming months.
Pope Francis has been creating new saints at an almost rapid pace, however the actual process for declaring an individual to sainthood is still very much cloaked in secrecy and looks at their performance of miracles, political ideology, as well as, large amounts of money passing hands.
In more recent years under the watch and ruling of Pope Francis it is now easier than ever to obtain sainthood as he done away with the miracle requirement that was previously needed to obtain sainthood.
You may be wondering about just how a saint is created, and as we have stated earlier, much of the details remain veiled in mystery, however the basics are as follows:
- A postulator obtains documentation and testimony and then present the case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
- The Congregation for the Cause of Saints come to an agreement that the individual has lived a virtuous life and forward the case directly to the Pope.
- The Pope then signs a decree attesting to the individuals heroic virtues
- If the individual discovered by the postulator has mysteriously healed another individual through prayer and their cure can not be medically explained than the individual’s case is presented for beatification.
- A panel of doctors, theologians, bishops and cardinals must then agree that the cure was instantaneous and complete and they will then send the case to the Pope
- The Pope then signs a decree that says the individuals can be beatified.
- The individual must then have a second miracle to be considered for canonization, after which they will become a saint
In the case of Mother Teresa, she is covered as far as miracles are concerned. She was beatified back in 2003 after an Indian woman by the name of Monica Besra claimed that Mother Teresa’s divine intervention cured her of a tumor. Pope John Paul II waived the normal five-year waiting period for Mother Teresa’s beatification process to begin and launched it a year after her 1997 death.
Pope Benedict XVI then waived the five-year waiting period for John Paul in launching his beatification process in just a few weeks after his death in 2005. John Paul beat out Mother Teresa’s quick beatification by just a few days when he was beatified May 1, 2011.