A grave test for saints
QUESTION Is the exhumation of saints for veneration (as with that of Padre Pio) standard practice in the Roman Catholic Church? The official process for declaring a saint, called canonisation, is preceded by beatification, the recognition accorded by the Roman Catholic Church of a dead person’s entrance into heaven and ability to perform miracles.
In 1234, Pope Gregory IX established formal procedures to investigate the life of a candidate for sainthood and any attributed miracles
Beginning with Urban VIII in 1634, various popes have revised and improved the norms and procedures for canonisation.
Pope John Paul II greatly relaxed the system and beatified more people than all his predecessors combined, and was himself beatified six years after his death.
The process of beatification begins with a series of inquiries to confirm via witnesses the veracity of a martyr’s veneration and miracles. Urban VIII introduced refinements aimed at proving to Catholic authorities that the tomb had not been tampered with in any way, suggesting some connection with a cult.
It was usually conducted by the bishop of the place where the martyr was interred and required exhumation of the body and relics.
Sometimes the remains are remarkably intact and the Church views these bodies as being incorrupt — their bodies have not decomposed. There are more than 250 incorrupt Catholic saints and many of these are on display for veneration in chapels around the world.
Padre Pio, real name Francesco Forgione, was born in 1887 and died in 1968. he is reputed to have had stigmata, the wounds of Christ’s Crucifixion. he was credited with more than a thousand miraculous cures and built up a huge following.
he was also said to have given off the scent of flowers and to have had the ability to bilocate — to be in two places at once.
Padre Pio was originally shunned by Church authorities and accused of selfmutilating with carbolic acid to create the stigmata, but he was finally recognised due to popular devotion.
he was beatified in 1999 and canonised in 2002. his cult became so popular he was exhumed for a second time and put on display in a crystal coffin in 2008.
In 2010, the body was transferred to the new San Pio church, next to San Giovanni Rotondo in Rome.
Capitalising on his ever- growing popularity, the remains were brought to the Vatican for veneration last year for an extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy to inspire people to become reconciled to the Church and to God by the confession of their sins.
annette groves, london W4.
QUESTION Why are rewards given because of your job called ‘perks’? The word perk is an Anglicisation of the word perquisite, which sounds French but owes its origin to the medieval latin perquisitum (from the latin perquirere), which means ‘to search diligently for’.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines perquisite as ‘an extra profit or allowance additional to a main income’ or ‘a customary extra right or privilege — an incidental benefit attached to employment’.
It is not, of course, to be confused with prerequisite, which means a thing required as a precondition.
Richard M. Billinge, york.
QUESTION I have been told Gatwick Airport has a second runway but, over the years, it has been overgrown by grass. If true, and this runway was recovered, would it be fit to be used for today’s aircraft? In The early days of flight, wind direction was an important factor. Slow-moving aircraft relied heavily on a headwind to generate additional lift for take-off.
The first airfields didn’t have runways. Aircraft just taxied onto the grass and took off in the best direction according to the wind. The wind sock, the orange fabric tube that flies from a pole on the airfield, indicated wind direction and speed for the pilot.
Only when aircraft became heavier and risked sinking into the grass were runways built. The first were compacted earth topped with grass, sometimes covered with a steel mesh to improve grip, but over the years there was a transition to concrete to support ever heavier aircraft.
To allow for differing wind directions, it was common for RAF airfields to be built with at least two runways, configured in an X, intersecting somewhere near the middle. As the wind changed direction, so the runway in use would change.
As aircraft with more powerful engines were built, take-off speeds improved and the need for the X formation diminished.
Typically airports now have only one runway, though it’s still aligned to take advantage of the prevailing wind. This is why most runways in Britain are aligned east-West and north east-South West.
Gatwick airport started life in the late Twenties when land adjacent to hunts lane Farm, along Tinsley Green, was bought for use as an aerodrome.
It was next to a racecourse, which has since been absorbed into the airport. It opened on August 2, 1930, as Surrey Aero Club, a private club for flying enthusiasts.
In 1934, hillman’s Airways (which soon became British Airways) commenced commercial flights to Paris and Belfast.
The airport was taken over by the RAF during World War II and returned to civilian use in 1946.
In 1950, Gatwick had three runways: one aligned South West-north east, 4,200 ft long and covered in steel mesh; a 3,600 ft one aligned east-West, also covered in steel mesh; and a grass covered 3,600 ft one aligned South east-north West.
In 1956, the airport was closed and a custom-built paved 7,000 ft runway built, which is still in use.
Provision was made for a second 7,000 ft runway north of the new one, but it was never built. Most of the original runways have been subsumed into the new runway, so couldn’t be resurrected.
The revamped airport was opened by the Queen on June 9, 1958, as london Gatwick Airport (lGW).
The existing runway has been extended twice: in 1964, adding 1,200 ft; and in 1970, adding a further 870 ft.
In 2004, Gatwick achieved a record 906 flights in a day — the first time an airport with a single runway has handled more than 900 flights in a day. In 2015, it handled 40 million passengers.
An old concrete runway would be cracked by now with grassy patches. If such a runway existed, it would be cheaper to rip it up and start again than to repair it.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
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