Catholics have seven new saints
Pope seeks to revive faith in places where it is found wanting
Pope Benedict XVI adds seven more saints onto the roster of Catholic role models
VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI added seven more saints onto the roster of Catholic role models as he tries to rekindle the faith in places where it’s lagging.
Two of them were Americans: Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint from the United States and Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii.
Native Americans in beaded and feathered headdresses and leather-fringed tunics sang songs to Tekakwitha as the sun rose over St Peter’s Square ahead of the Mass on yesterday morning.
Also on hand was Sharon Smith, whose cure from complications from pancreatitis was deemed a “miracle” by the Vatican, paving the way for Cope to be canonised.
Pilgrims from around the world attended yesterday’s Mass, which started with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office reading aloud each of the names of the seven new saints in Latin, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“It’s so nice to see God showing all the flavours of the world,” marvelled Gene Caldwell, a Native American member of the Menominee reservation in Neopit, Wisconsin.
“The Native Americans are enthralled” to have Tekakwitha canonised, he said.
Cheers rose up again when Benedict, speaking in Latin, declared each of the seven saints and worthy of veneration by the entire church.
“It’s amazing!” said Sheila Austin, a nurse who travelled with pilgrims from Syracuse, NewYork, for Cope’s canonisation.
“There have been people working for many years so that today would come about.”
The canonisation coincided with a Vatican meeting of the world’s bishops on trying to revive Christianity in places where it’s fallen by the wayside.
Several of the new saints were missionaries, making clear the pope hopes their example will be relevant today as the Catholic Church tries to hold onto its faithful in the face of competition from evangelical churches in Africa and Latin America, increasing secularisation in the West and disenchantment with the church over the clerical sex abuse scandal in Europe and beyond.
One of the newsaints was Pedro Calungsod, a Filipino teenager who helped Jesuit priests convert natives in Guam in the 17th century but was killed by spearwielding villagers opposed to the missionaries’ efforts to baptise their children.
The other new saints are: Jacques Berthieu, Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Carmen Salles Y Barangueras and Anna Schaeffer. — AP