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Pope Names 7 New Saints ‘Those Who are In Heaven with God’

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI added seven more saints onto the roster of Catholic role models on Sunday, saying their example would strengthen the church it tries to rekindle the faith in places where it’s lagging.

Two of them were Americans: Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint from the U.S. and Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii.

Native Americans in beaded and feathered headdresses and leather-fringed tunics sang songs to Kateri as the sun rose over St. Peter’s Square ahead of the Mass. Also taking part was Sharon Smith, whose cure from complications from pancreatitis was deemed a “miracle” by the Vatican, paving the way for Mother Marianne to be canonized.

In his homily, Benedict praised each of the seven new saints as examples for the entire church, calling Cope a “shining” example for Catholics and Kateri an inspiration to indigenous faithful across North America.
“With heroic courage they spent their lives in total consecration to the Lord and in the generous service of their brethren,” he said.

Pilgrims from around the world attended the Mass, which started with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office reading aloud each of the names of the seven new saints in Latin, drawing cheers from the crowd.

“It’s so nice to see God showing all the flavors of the world,” marveled Gene Caldwell, a Native American member of the Menominee reservation in Neopit, Wisconsin who attended with his wife, Linda. “The Native Americans are enthralled” to have Kateri canonized, he said.

Cheers rose up again when Benedict, speaking in Latin, declared each of the seven saints and worthy of veneration by the entire church.

“It’s amazing!” said Sheila Austin, a nurse who traveled with pilgrims from Syracuse, New York, for Mother Marianne’s canonization. “There have been people working for many years so that today would come about.”

The canonization coincided with a Vatican meeting of the world’s bishops on trying to revive Christianity in places where it’s fallen by the wayside. Several of the new saints were missionaries, making clear the pope hopes their example will be relevant today as the Catholic Church tries to hold onto its faithful in the face of competition from evangelical churches in Africa and Latin America, increasing secularization in the West and disenchantment with the church over the clerical sex abuse scandal in Europe and beyond.

One of the new saints was Pedro Calungsod, a Filipino teenager who helped Jesuit priests convert natives in Guam in the 17th century but was killed by spear-wielding villagers opposed to the missionaries’ efforts to baptize their children.

Rome’s sizeable Filipino expat community came out in droves for the Mass, including Marianna Dieza, a 39-year-old housekeeper who said it was a day of pride for all Filipinos. “We are especially proud because he is so young,” she said.

The two American saints actually hail from roughly the same place – what is today upstate New York – although they lived two centuries apart.

Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” Kateri was born in 1656 to a pagan Iroquois father and an Algonquin Christian mother. Her parents and only brother died when she was 4 during a smallpox epidemic that left her badly scarred and with impaired eyesight. She went to live with her uncle, a Mohawk, and was baptized Catholic by Jesuit missionaries. But she was ostracized and persecuted by other natives for her faith, and she died in what is now Canada when she was 24.

Speaking in English and French, in honor of Kateri’s Canadian ties, Benedict noted how unusual it was in Kateri’s culture for her to choose to devote herself to her Catholic faith.

“May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are,” Benedict said. “Saint Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, we entrust you to the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America!”

Cope is revered among many Catholics in Hawaii, where she arrived from New York in 1883 to care for leprosy patients on Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula on Molokai Island where Hawaii governments forcibly exiled them for decades. At the time, there was widespread fear of the disfiguring disease, which can cause skin lesions, mangled fingers and toes and lead to blindness.

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Posted by on October 22, 2012. Filed under INTERNATIONAL NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

23 Responses to Pope Names 7 New Saints ‘Those Who are In Heaven with God’

  1. PF Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 9:01 am

    I HATE the roman catholic church!!!

    • Thief Justice Reply

      October 22, 2012 at 4:29 pm

      Careful!!

  2. ak Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 9:42 am

    this is insauting God. what powers doese he hv to see what is in heven, we are in the last days lets not be decived lets just belive in what the bibel is teaching us.

  3. Mwapya Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Anti christ at work..oh plz,u cnt fight u idiots.

  4. Shameless Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:07 am

    And the end shall not come until the man of evil is revealed. He shall want to sit in God’s seat.
    That is no other than the pop himself.
    Signs of the end indef.

  5. Joyce Ndaje Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:14 am

    1-4 You should understand the Roman Catholics Doctrine before insulting the Pope. The Pope does not pretend to be God. Far from

  6. Joyce Ndaje Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:23 am

    1-4 Just go to Church of your rather than poke your nose in other people’Churches. If the Pope beatifies an individual for outstanding contribution to the well being of theworld, it does not mean that you are forced to reccognise that appointment. The choice is yours just like you may not appreciate those who have won the Nobel Prize. It doesnt meean that God will accept what the pope does no. It our tradition and it has nothing to do with you.

    • One Zambia One Nation Reply

      October 22, 2012 at 5:02 pm

      What would it help you to practice traditions which won’t see you in heaven mama? Its those traditions which are not going to get saved that we need to let go of. Satan comes to people through the same traditions which you want to keep on practicing. I think for a christian to live a fulfilling life is to accept Jesus in their lives and do away with traditions.

  7. pope the pawpaw Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:32 am

    this pawpaw is full of crap,damn

  8. Wapema Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:41 am

    Dear readers,

    The message above is very unfortunate.No human being can declare another human being a saint.Sainthood is a gift from God to those whom He saves. Sainthood is not given to the dead, but to the living. A saint is one who is born again, a saint is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The pope is a human being and he has no power to save another person, cannot give eternal life to another. Isn’t it amazing that one who is waiting for another pope to canonize him should be in the business of canonizing other people! The pope is not a saint; he will only be ‘declared’ one long after his death. So how can he declare anyone a saint, which he himself has not achieved? THERE IS NO WHERE IN THE HOLY WORDS WHERE ANYONE BECAME A SAINT AFTER THEIR DEATH. Roman Catholic followers, please read any of Paul’s letters in the New Testament of the Bible and you will see that the people Paul was addressing as saints were living believers and not dead sinners. Please read the Bible and you will know the truth and it will set you free(John 8:32).

  9. Popo Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 10:46 am

    The antichrist should shut his beak and await for his fate.What bible does he read which he does not understand?No one can tell us about who the saint is in heaven.Dreamer on!!

  10. Akapondo Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 11:13 am

    Am roman catholic 2 bt apa bafaula ba pope….

  11. chitapankwa Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 11:52 am

    leave the Catholic church alone and continue going to these small churches that are ‘owned’ by some failed retirees looking for a living.You are just enriching some con men who are filthy rich while you wallow in poverty with the promise that your treasures are in heaven. wake up those are businesses and not churches. the Catholic church is the only real church, accept it or perish!!!

    • One Zambia One Nation Reply

      October 22, 2012 at 5:05 pm

      Yes the Catholic Church we can leave alone – after all its just a building isn’t it? But we should not leave you who goes to that Church alone. You need to hear the truth as the bible plainly puts it. Read read and read.

  12. Eashmac Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 12:19 pm

    @ Chitapankwa
    What qualifies the Catholic church to be the only true church of Christ & which bible verses relate to it as one

  13. fact Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    Tumfweko, you need to talk and write the truth, do not fabricate stories from the blues. Remember always to resist comments concerning men of God. You get cursed through what you say against servants of God.
    Be careful, do not bring Church and God to such crazy forums, you will regret.

  14. fact Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 2:24 pm

    The real Church is you as an individual.Christ should always live in you and be your guild in everything you say and do.Any church building recognising Christ as King and savoir, is wealthy to go to.Our real Church is Ourselves.

  15. fact Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    PF may God deliver you. You do not know what it takes to be a Christian. If you believe in a different doctrine, it does not grant you to hate people. We are not Muslims, but we love the the muslims as our brothers and sisters becoz they are made in Gods image too.

  16. mulenga Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    be careful of what you say to the anointed one for the bible says touch not my anointed one…whether from the catholic or other churches.

  17. mkonzi Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    All those involved in such blasphemy need deliverance. That stuff is not biblical. Then what is judgement day all about. Its not about the outer works or contributions its about your personal relation with the maker. By the way, the pope shall be judged as well. Its just a sad practice.

  18. PHIRI Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    Where is it written that ELLEN G. WHITE WAS A PROPHETES. She was just an American prosititute

  19. Atheist Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    So all you theists can’t see that there is no god, grow up. Do you even know your god is another one of human inventions, just like language, science, mathematics etc.

  20. Evangelist Reply

    October 22, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    What do the following verses mean: Mark 7:6-10 and Revelation 14:12 remember u are reading your own Bible.ok, here it is;

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