Pope Benedict XVI has beatified 563 people and created 14 new saints since the start of his papacy, more than keeping pace with his predecessor, a Vatican cardinal said on Monday. The total, 577, is a “considerable number” compared with the 1,338 beatifications and 482 canonizations approved by John Paul II in his nearly 27 years as pontiff, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins told a news conference.
Benedict XVI has “great awareness of the holiness of the Church,” Saraiva Martins said, adding that the work of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints — the Vatican department he heads — has “not changed” since the German pope was elected in April 2005.
Candidates for sainthood must first be beatified, earning the title of “blessed.”
The Catholic faithful believe that prayers to either can result in intercession with God on their behalf.
The bulk of those so far beatified by Benedict XVI are 498 “martyrs” of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, during which the Church supported the nationalists of General Francisco Franco.
The priests, nuns and other Catholics killed by left-wing forces were elevated in October last year in the biggest mass beatification in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Also Monday, Saraiva Martins said the beatification process for John Paul II was well under way but would not be accelerated.
Benedict authorized the start of John Paul II’s beatification process a few weeks after the Polish pope died in April 2005, waiving the usual five-year waiting period.
The only precedent for the waiver was when John Paul II put Mother Teresa on the fast track to sainthood and beatified the Albanian nun seven years after her death.
Just last week Benedict XVI allowed a third waiver, for Sister Lucia of Jesus, a Portuguese visionary who died in 2005.
She was one of three children who claimed to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.
Saraiva Martins also said the beatification process of pope Pius XII, whose role during World War II remains controversial, was continuing.
Vatican sources said in December that a special commission had been set up to study the dossier amid objections notably from Jewish organizations over his silence during the Holocaust.
Saraiva Martins described the position as “discretion” rather than silence.
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