Newman, Mindszenty Move Closer to Sainthood

Newman, Mindszenty Move Closer to Sainthood February 13, 2019

From Crux: 

In moves that advance the sainthood causes of two of the most celebrated, and, at times, controversial Catholic figures of the 19th and 20thcenturies, the Vatican announced Wednesday that a miracle has been attributed to Cardinal John Henry Newman and “heroic virtue” has been attributed to Cardinal József Mindszenty.

Newman, an Englishman who died in 1890, is perhaps the most renowned Anglican convert to Catholicism of all time. A theologian, poet and essayist, Newman was beatified in 2010, meaning the new miracle clears the way for his canonization, the formal act of declaring him a saint.

Mindszenty, who died in exile in 1975, was the leader of the Hungarian church from 1945 to 1973, during the Soviet occupation of the country. He was convicted of treason by the country’s Communist authorities in a 1949 show trial and spent eight years in prison before an uprising in 1956, which allowed him to seek refuge in the American embassy in Budapest where he lived for 15 years.

Mindszenty became a global symbol of resistance to Communism, and he was eventually permitted to leave Hungary in 1971. He died in Vienna, Austria, in 1975, where he had been welcomed by the late Cardinal Franz König, who had opened negotiations with the Hungarian Communists to secure his release at the personal request of St. Pope John XXIII.

A decree of “heroic virtue” means that Mindszenty is now entitled to be called “venerable,” and that his sainthood cause must await one approved miracle for beatification and another for eventual canonization.

Read the rest. 

About the Newman miracle: 

Newman’s second miracle concerned the healing of an American pregnant woman. The woman prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover.

This miracle was investigated by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and apparently has now been confirmed.

Sr. Kathleen Dietz, FSO, is a Newman scholar, and vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Erie.

“Cardinal Newman was a man of integrity,” she told CNA. “A word you don’t hear too often, but it simply means that he followed what God wanted him to do, no matter the cost. And it cost him a lot.”


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