(14 Feb 08 - RV ) Pope Benedict XVI is dispensing with the five-year waiting period
established by Canon Law to open the cause of beatification of Sister Lucia, one of
the three Fatima visionaries.
The news was announced Wednesday evening in the
cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal, by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation
for Saints' Causes, on the third anniversary of the Carmelite's death.
A communiqué
of the Vatican press office states: "Benedict XVI, taking into account the petition
presented by Bishop Albino Mamede Cleto of Coimbra, and supported by numerous bishops
and faithful from all parts of the world, has revoked the five-year waiting period
established by the canonical norms (cf. Article 9 of the 'Normae Servandae'), and
he has allowed for the diocesan phase of the Carmelite's cause of beatification to
begin three years after her death."
The Holy Father dispensed with the established
waiting period once before for the cause of Pope John Paul II.
Meanwhile the
Vatican has also announced that “Sanctorum Mater," concerning norms regulating the
opening of saints' causes, will be presented Monday,.
The document, from the
Congregation for Saints' Causes, will be presented by the dicastery's prefect, Cardinal
José Saraiva Martins, accompanied by the secretary and under-secretary.
A supplement,
"Index Ac Status Causarum," will be presented at the same time.
The new document
has "certain instructions on how to proceed in the examination of the admissibility
of new cases, and about what to do to concretely begin and carry forward the diocesan
phase of the process," Cardinal Saraiva Martins told L'Osservatore Romano last month.
"It involves very important innovations, capable of effectively highlighting the theology
of the local Church as it was energetically reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council."