By Susan Gately - 12 May, 2014
Pope Paul VI
Pope Francis has approved the promulgation of the decree for the cause of beatification of his predecessor Pope Paul VI. The approval was announced on Saturday 10th May.
The beatification ceremony is scheduled to take place on 19 October 2014, at the conclusion of the III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family.
Paul VI was born Giovanni Battista Montini in the Lombardy region of Italy in 1897, the son of a prominent newspaper editor. He was elected pope in 1963 and continued the work of his predecessor, St John XXIII.
During his 15-year pontificate he wrote seven encyclicals. Paul VI died in August 1978 and was succeeded briefly by Pope John Paul who died in October 1978.
No official details of the miracle which has opened the door to Paul VI’s beatification have been released, but Italian media report that the miracle concerned the healing of a baby boy in the womb. The baby was diagnosed as having a ruptured bladder, and there was an absence of amniotic fluid. The mother reportedly was advised to have an abortion, refused and prayed for Pope Paul VI’s intercession to deliver her baby safely and healthily.
The baby was born a month prematurely and is now a healthy adolescent, the news reports said.
Caroline Carré de Malberg
On the same day that Pope Francis approved the promulgation of the decree of beatification for Pope Paul VI, he also approved a miracle attributed to the Venerable Servant of God Luigi Caburlotto, diocesan priest, founder of the Institute of the Daughters of St. Joseph. In addition he approved the ‘heroic virtues’ of two priests: the Servant of God Giacomo Abbondo, diocesan priest who died in 1788 and the Servant of God, Giacinto Alegre Pujals SJ, who died in 1930.
The cause of a mother of a family, the Servant of God Caroline Carré de Malberg, the founder of the Society of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales was also brought a step further on with the recognition of her heroic virtue. She died in 1891 .
ICN / Susan Gately
