With the Holy See shortly set to announce the canonization of Pope Paul VI, this two-part series  explores the phenomenon of recent popes being canonized.

Some popes who have made their mark on history, like Leo XIII, the pope of Rerumnovarum, Benedict XV, the pope of the Great War, or Pius XI, who denounced totalitarianism, are not the subject of any beatification process. There is indeed a slightly different situation with the popes of the Second Vatican Council and the post-Council. By the end of this, the canonization of John XXIII had been sought by the Council Fathers, who even wanted to do this by acclamation.

John Paul II, of course, had been the subject of a “popular canonization,” from the moment his death — recall the slogan “Santo subito.”

As for Paul VI, he would still have been keen to canonize John XXIII, who initiated the Council, and not the one who was its “great helmsman,” to use Pope Francis’ term.

And even if the canonization of these three popes occurred in quick succession, a long process was involved in each case before they were declared saints.

The decision whether to canonize a pope is always a question of ecclesial policy, related to the current pontificate.

In the current case, I believe that the canonization of Paul VI marks, on the part of Pope Francis, a desire to revive a message, which is always based on a certain reading of the pontificate.

Of course, we canonize a person, not a pontificate. And all the popes that we are talking about here were also remarkable personalities. But it is still difficult to separate the two. As such, it can be said that the canonization of a pope is probably not quite comparable to that of a simple Christian.

A 13-year-old Christian, who held her dying father in her arms moments after a Cairo suicide bomb attack by Daesh (ISIS), has spoken about her heartbreaking experience.

Marian Nabil Habib told Aid to the Church in Need about the “martyrdom” of her father, Nabil Habib, who was among 29 people killed by Daesh extremists in the capital on 11 December 2016.

Mr Habib, who was 48, was working as a security guard at St Peter and St Paul’s Coptic Church, also known as El- Botroseya Church, where bombing took place. Describing her last moments with her father.

The 15-year-old teenager recalled feeling panic and confusion immediately after the explosion, Miss Habib said: “I rushed outside and found people running in all directions, screaming hysterically. There was a scene of complete destruction, but I still I did not know what had happened. I asked about my father but nobody knew where he was. I continued looking for him, then, at the entrance of the church, I found my father lying on the ground and bleeding heavily from his head.” “I have joined the church choir, which gives me inner peace, because it is one of the things that bring me closer to God.”

The president of the German bishops’ conference has said there is scope for priests to bless same-sex couples in individual cases, but it is not possible to make a general rule governing the practice.

In the “Interview of the Week” on Bavarian radio (Bayrischer Rundfunk BR) on 2 February, Cardinal Reinhard Marx said that new circumstances and new insights posed challenges the Church must rise to. “We cannot simply change the situation in which people live nor the world in which we live. We can deplore them but what help is that?” What we can do, and what the Pope is encouraging us to do, is change the way we treat people, he said. “We must take their relationships, their hopes but also their failures and the breakdowns they have experienced, more seriously.”

He continued: “There are things that it is not possible to regulate.” However, the fact that a general ruling was not possible did not mean one could do nothing. How a priest accompanied a homosexual couple pastorally and liturgically must be left to the individual priest, he said.

American Catholics have “shown a lack of moral consciousness on the issue of race,” Bishop George Murry told attendees at the 2018 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. While he believes America has made progress on the issue of race relations, he said that “recent events in our country have questioned exactly how far we’ve come.” Speaking on February 4 to more than 500 Catholic social activists who are gathered in the nation’s capital for a four-day conference and advocacy sessions on Capitol Hill, Murry chronicled the development of the Church’s position on slavery, noting that previously the Church considered there to be “just and unjust forms of slavery.”