VATICAN CITY, DEC 17 (ZENIT).- This morning Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presented to the international press what can easily be called an encyclopedia of the Saints and Blessed of the last 400 years. With the Latin title, "Index ac status causarum," the volume gives a list of all the causes analyzed by this Vatican organization since 1588, the year it was established by Sixtus V, until the present.
Bishop Edward Novak, secretary of the Congregation for Saints, gave some significant figures from the book. "There have been 1,742 Blessed and 591 Saints proclaimed by the Congregation between 1609 and 1999. John Paul II has proclaimed 1,235 Blessed and Saints, becoming the Pontiff who by far has made the most proclamations." The numbers are high, in part, because among the Blessed and Saints proclaimed by this pontificate there were several large groups of martyrs beatified together, such as 205 Mexicans, 25 Spaniards, 108 Poles, 127 Vietnamese and 103 Koreans.
Pius XII's Beatification Responding to questions from reporters, Archbishop Saraiva Martins said that "there is no delay whatsoever in Pius XII's cause for beatification. Those who read the historic facts without ideological prejudices can see the wisdom of Pope Pacelli's actions. For us there is not doubt."
With reference to the Holocaust, the Portuguese Archbishop explained that "if Pius XII had behaved another way, today he would be accused of having caused many more victims, especially among the Jewish people." The prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints proceeded to quote several publications in which, beginning 1939, Goebbels and the Allies point to Pius XII and the Church as the great opponents of Nazism. Although he did not give a specific date, Archbishop Saraiva Martins spoke at length in favor of the causes of beatification of Pope Pius IX and Pope John XXIII. However, he excluded Mother Teresa of Calcutta's beatification in the year 2000.
There is a significant number of causes coming to conclusion at present. Archbishop Saraiva Martins did not exclude the possibility that there might be additions to the three scheduled beatification (March 5, April 9, September 3) and two canonization (May 21 and October 1) ceremonies in the papal Jubilee calendar.
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