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The Causes of Saints: A Papal Pronouncement and New Measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2007

Robert Ombres OP
Affiliation:
Dominican Procurator General, Rome

Abstract

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Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2007

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References

1 Kemp, EW, Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (Oxford, 1948), pp 169170Google Scholar.

2 Benedict XVI, ‘Ad Sessionem Plenariam Congregationis de Causis Sanctorum’, (2006) 98 Acta Apostolicae Sedis 397–401, dated 24 April 2006.

3 The main canonical legislation is from 1983, and includes the Apostolic Constitution, Divinus perfectionis Magister, and a set of norms. It is outlined in Ombres, R, ‘Merits and miracles: the causes of saints’, (1985) 70 The Clergy Review 6870Google Scholar, and more fully, with texts and English translations, in Woestman, WH (ed), Canonization: theology, history, process (Ottawa, 2002)Google Scholar.

4 Weigel, G, Witness to Hope: the biography of Pope John Paul II, 1920–2005 (New York, NY, 2005), pp 447448Google Scholar.

5 Giovannucci, P, ‘Fama di santità e vero martirio’, (2006) 53 Studia Patavina 687696Google Scholar indicates possible backgrounds to Benedict XVI's pronouncement. I owe this reference to Umberto Frassineti OP.

6 (2005) 145 L'Osservatore Romano for 29 September 2005 published the communication from the Congregation (p 1) and a commentary on it by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation (p 7).

7 Put briefly, beatification is of lesser authority and results in a more restricted public cult than canonisation.