Two more clergymen on the road to sainthood

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has moved two major 20th century Catholic clergymen on the road to possible sainthood: the Rev Patrick Peyton, the “Rosary Priest”; and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, mentor to the future Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican said yesterday Francis had approved decrees asserting that both men lived lives of heroic Christian virtue.

Secret Vatican committees of doctors, cardinals, theologians and bishops must now certify a miracle attributed to each man’s intercession in order for him to be beatified. A second miracle is needed to be made a saint.

Peyton, who staged prayer rallies around the world and used radio, TV and film to spread his message of prayer, coined the saying “the family that prays together stays together”. He died in 1992 in Los Angeles.

Wyszynski was Poland’s Primate and leading moral authority before Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected pope in 1978. He died in 1981. – AP/African News Agency