Pope Paul VI ‘to be beatified’

THE VATICAN has recognised a miracle as being attributed to Paul VI’s intercession and will beatify the late Italian Pope in October, a Vatican source said on Tuesday, writes Liz Dodd.

The Italian news agency ANSA said the source said the miracle identified by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints was the healing of an unborn baby from an otherwise incurable illness.

Italian Catholic media reported that the baby was born in California in the 1990s. It said that the pregnancy had been at risk and doctors urged the mother to have an abortion. A nun and friend of the family placed a holy card bearing Paul VI’s photo and a piece of his vestment on the mother’s stomach and the baby was born healthy.

ANSA said the beatification could occur on 19 October after the bishops’ synod on the family.

Giovanni Battista Montini, who reigned as Pope Paul VI between 1963 and 1978, implemented many key reforms of the Second Vatican Council but his 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which addresses the sanctity of the unborn, remains controversial for its ban on the use of artificial birth control.