Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, explained how Pope Francis could can dwell (declare Santos) the young Blessed Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, next Sunday, April 27 in Rome.
In an interview granted to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serathe cardinal explained that in some particular cases the Pope can transfer some of his powers, as in the current situation with Francisco still convalescent after having left the Gemelli hospital, where he was hospitalized 38 days for bilateral pneumonia.
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“For example, in the case of canonizations, it is the Pope who pronounces the formula, but that also, if necessary, can be delegated to a collaborator who pronounces it on behalf of the Pontiff,” said the Purpurado Italiano
The formula referred to by the cardinal is the text that the Pope reads during the canonization rite, when he registered – with the authority of Christ and the apostles San Pedro and Saint Paul – to a blessed in the book or catalog of the saints.
When consulted on whether the formula could be read by Cardinal Marcello Semerao, prefect of the Dicastery for the causes of the saints, Cardinal Parolin replied: “Yes, only if the Pope gives him authorization to read the formula in his name. In case he cannot at that time we will see what solution he is located, he will also depend on how the Holy Father feels in those days.
Although he did not explicitly mention Carlo Acutis Oa Pier Giorgio Frassati, his canonization, on April 27, he is the closest of the calendar in the Vatican.
How is the Church governed with Pope Francis convalescent?
Cardinal Parolin also specified that the Council of Cardinals or C9, which advises the Pope and who is part of, “has no specific role in this situation,” that is, at the current situation of the Holy Father, governing the Church with the physical limitations of his convalescence.
“The Pope never stopped governing the Church, even during the days of his hospitalization in the Gemelli” because of bilateral pneumonia, the purple stressed ..
“Of course, as we know, he had to stop his daily activity, now the important thing is that he can rest and recover. As doctors said, he will need more or less two months,” he said.
To the question about whether something changes now, the Secretary of State of the Vatican said that “there is no change in the essential. The Holy Father needs to keep calm not to get too tired and present the issues on which he and only he can and must decide. The Government of the Church is in his hands.”
However, he stressed, “not everything has to go through the Pope. The Pontiff has his collaborators in the Curia, to whom he himself gives the instructions to follow and the power to also make certain decisions.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.