Blessed Kateri’s sainthood nears

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has advanced the sainthood causes of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha and Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai.
The Pope signed the decrees recognizing the miracles needed for their canonizations, but before a date is set for the canonization ceremonies, there must be an “ordinary public consistory” during which cardinals present in Rome express their support for the Pope’s decision.
Blessed Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks, was born to a Christian Algonquin mother and a Mohawk father in 1656 in upstate New York along the Hudson River. She was baptized by a Jesuit missionary in 1676 when she was 20, and she died in Canada four years later. In June 1980, she became the first Native American to be beatified.
Blessed Marianne spent the last 30 years of her life ministering on the Hawaiian island of Molokai to those with leprosy. She died on the island in 1918 at age 80 and was beatified in St. Peter’s Basilica in 2005.