VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed John Henry Newman, the English cardinal, clearing the way for his canonization.
The Vatican announced Feb. 13 that Pope Francis had signed the decree the day before.
Also Feb. 12, he formally recognized that the late Hungarian Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, jailed and exiled by the communists, had lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way; the recognition is an early step in the sainthood process.
In the sainthood cause of Blessed Newman, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth had reported in November that the proposed miracle involved a young law graduate from the Archdiocese of Chicago who faced life-threatening complications during her pregnancy but suddenly recovered when she prayed to the English cardinal for help.
Blessed Newman was born in London in 1801 and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1925. He was a leader in the Oxford Movement in the 1830s, which emphasized the Catholic roots of Anglicanism. He joined the Catholic Church at the age of 44 and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1846. He died in 1890 his sainthood cause was opened in 1958. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in Birmingham, England, in 2010.
The sainthood cause of Cardinal Mindszenty, who led the Archdiocese of Esztergom, Hungary’s primatial see, is in its initial stages. The decree of “heroic virtues” means he can be called “venerable.”
He was born March 29, 1892, in what was Austro-Hungary and was ordained to the priesthood in 1915, named archbishop in 1945 and a cardinal in 1946.
Arrested by the communists in 1948 on charges of treason, Cardinal Mindszenty was tortured into confessing. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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