The Vatican has issued sixteen decrees advancing the causes of candidates for canonization and beatification.

With the approval of Pope Francis, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints proclaimed the martyrdom of Brother James Alfred Miller, and American religious who was killed in Guatemala in 1982. The Congregation also confirmed the “cult from time immemorial” of Michele Giedrojc, a layman who lived in the 15th century in what is now Lithuania and Poland. The decree, equivalent to beatification, gives him the title of “Blessed.”

In other decrees, the Congregation recognized ten martyrs of the Spanish Civil War; certified miracles attributed to two Italian woman, who now become eligible for beatification and confirmed the “heroic virtue” of ten other candidates for beatification.