Paul KeenanDate set for Rome ceremony
Pope Paul VI will be beatified at a ceremony in Rome this October 19.
Following approval by the Congregation for the Causes of Saintsof a miracle linked to the late Pontiff’s intercession, Pope Francis announced on May 10 the forthcoming beatification.
The miracle paving the way for Pope Paul VI concerns a case in the United States in 2001 involving a mother and unborn child. Having found a number of series medical issues with the child which could not be corrected, doctors informed the parents that it would either die in the womb or suffer serious impairment after delivery. The mother subsequently refused an abortion and, following an encounter with a nun who had met Pope Paul VI and offered a piece of his vestments, she prayed to the late Pontiff while holding the material. Later medical tests showed a marked increase in the baby’s health and a son was duly delivered. Follow-up medical examinations over the past 13 years have shown an inexplicable recovery from the pre-birth complications.
October 19 has been favoured for the beatification as it comes at the end of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, a synod first established by Pope Paul VI in 1965.