No Saints in the Vatican: Fabene’s Tenders and Blunders Leave Canonisation Causes Paying the Price

Vatican City - Before long, the Prelature of Pompeii may find itself shedding its last bitter tears. In the Vatican, by contrast, someone may finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief. In recent years, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints has gone through one of the murkiest periods in its history. Not coincidentally, much of what has happened bears the mark of Francis’s pontificate. It is a complex and exceptionally sensitive institution: not only because of the matters with which it deals, but also because of the interests, connections and pressures that inevitably surround one of the Holy See’s most delicate bodies. The Dicastery oversees a substantial flow of financial resources connected with the handling of causes for sainthood. This money is used to gather documentation, obtain medical and historical expert assessments, commission specialist advice and analysis, and meet every requirement necessary to support a beatification or canonisation process. This is an area in which …