Vatican City: Even "poor" saints will benefit from Pope Francis' drive to control costs and introduce a sense of sobriety and accounting transparency in the Vatican.
The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that the Holy See department that oversees the making of saints had introduced a "price list", or a rough guide to the costs of sanctity.
It will clearly inform dioceses, associations or orders of priests and nuns who promote sainthood causes for deceased people considered to have been holy during their lifetime what they can expect to spend.
Gathering historical evidence, witnesses and lawyers to prove to the Vatican that a person was a saint can be expensive, a fact that has favoured those dioceses or orders of priests and nuns with more money.
The newspaper said there were plans to establish a fund to help defray expenses for those dioceses or religious orders that did not have much financial backing for the process. The newspaper called these "poor causes".
The newspaper, which gave few details, said the guide had come into force at the start of the year and that its goal was to instil a sense of "sobriety and fairness" to the process.
The head of the Vatican department that oversees the making of saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, told a conference on Monday that more would be made public about the costs, and that they would be more uniformly applied than in the past.
The procedure to make a saint can last anywhere from a few years to a few centuries.
The late Pope John Paul II will be declared a saint in May, a mere nine years after he died in 2005. His progression to sainthood is the fastest in modern times.
The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that the Holy See department that oversees the making of saints had introduced a "price list", or a rough guide to the costs of sanctity.
It will clearly inform dioceses, associations or orders of priests and nuns who promote sainthood causes for deceased people considered to have been holy during their lifetime what they can expect to spend.
The newspaper said there were plans to establish a fund to help defray expenses for those dioceses or religious orders that did not have much financial backing for the process. The newspaper called these "poor causes".
Advertisement
The head of the Vatican department that oversees the making of saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, told a conference on Monday that more would be made public about the costs, and that they would be more uniformly applied than in the past.
Advertisement
The late Pope John Paul II will be declared a saint in May, a mere nine years after he died in 2005. His progression to sainthood is the fastest in modern times.
© Thomson Reuters 2014
COMMENTS
Advertisement
England vs West Indies 2nd Test Day 2 LIVE: West Indies Bat After England Score 416 1st Time In 147 Years: England Set 'Fastest' World Record In Superb Display Of Hitting vs West Indies Watch: On James Anderson's Last Test, Harry Brook Takes Stunning One-Handed Catch Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor: The Culprit Behind World's Biggest IT Outage "Fix Deployed": CEO Of Firm Behind Global Microsoft Outage Microsoft Outage "Affecting IT Operations" Paris Olympics Organisers In Jaw-Dropping Video, 12-Foot King Cobra Rescued And Released In Karnataka Biden Or Trump, It's Still A Long Wait For Indian 'Dreamers' In US Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.