My Cousin the Saint | Justin Catanoso » sainthood

A new blessed in the Catholic church

justin — Sun, 01 May 2011 15:29:00 +0000

The New York Times reports: VATICAN CITY — Lauding John Paul II as a giant of 20th century history as well as a hero of the church, Pope Benedict XVI moved his towering predecessor one step closer to sainthood on Sunday in a celebratory Mass that drew more than a million people to Rome.

Full story here.

If you are visiting my site for the first time, my book gives a full, historical account of the canonization process from my own reporting at the Vatican, as well as Pope John Paul II’s role in changing the canonization process in the early 1980s, and how those church rules applied to my cousin, the saint — whom JPII beatified on May 4, 1997.

A star and her saint

justin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:28:07 +0000

An Italian web site reports: “Sophia Loren has lent her weight to the cause of Pope John Paul II reaching sainthood. The screen star has written to the Vatican official who is putting the case for the late pope’s beatification, one step from sainthood, Italian magazine Chi reports in an edition out Wednesday. ‘The memory of John Paul II is jealously guarded in my heart,’ says the 74-year-old screen icon. ‘It is a daily memory,’ she says, adding that she prayed at the pope’s tomb ‘to bear witness to my great admiration and devotion.’”

The whole story is here.

Beatification buzz

justin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:34:57 +0000

In the news: “According to the Italian daily La Stampa, John Paul II will be beatified on April 2, 2010 — the fifth anniversary of his death. Reporter Giacomo Galeazzi reports that thanks to an acceleration in the beatification process, documents pertaining to John Paul’s cause, called the “positio,” have already been forwarded by a commission of theologians to be examined by cardinals.“This is very good news,” says Msgr. Tadeusz Pieronek, the Polish priest who has been responsible for the diocesan phase of the beatification process in Krakow, La Stampa reported.” The whole story is here.

St. Jeanne

justin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:14:53 +0000

Albany Times Union reports here: “…Jeanne Jugan, a lowly kitchen maid who took care of the poor and elderly in a French village in the 1800s, has been selected for sainthood by Pope Benedict XVI. She will be canonized on Oct. 11 after a decades-long review by the Vatican that included her beatification in 1982.”