Vatican publishes decrees advancing more than 150 sainthood causes

Published: 2006-06-26

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has advanced the sainthood causes of scores of Spanish martyrs, an Italian martyr killed in Africa, seven founders of religious orders, three women religious, and two 19th-century laypeople. The Vatican published decrees the pope promulgated June 26 in the presence of Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. The pope advanced the cause of 149 Spanish martyrs, mostly men religious, killed during the country's 1936-1939 civil war. The Vatican also published a decree recognizing the martyrdom of the Italian missionary of the Servants of the Poor, Father Francesco Spoto. Born in 1924, the missionary priest went to serve in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite the risk of impending political upheaval at the start of the 1960s. He was wounded and later died in 1964 during the civil war in what was then called Belgian Congo.

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