Papua New Guinea is set to get its first Catholic
saint,
Vatican News reports Pope Francis approving
decress for the canonisation of three new saints including
the martyred layman Blessed Peter To Rot.
A catechist
during World War II Blessed Peter To Rot continued his
pastoral work during the Japanese occupation of PNG despite
it being forbidden and missionaries were being
arrested.
His brother reported him to police after he
confronted him for taking a second wife and he was sentenced
to two months in prison, where he died of poisoning in July
1945.
Pope St John Paul II beatified Blessed Peter To
Rot on 17 January 1995 in Port Moresby.
Pope Francis’s
decrees this week also cleared the path to sainthood for
Archbishop Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was murdered
during the Armenian genocide, and Venezuelan religious
founder Mother Maria del Monte Carmelo.
Pope Francis
also recognised a miracle attributed to Fr Carmelo De Palma,
an Italian priest from Bari, who was born on 27 January
1876.
The miracle involved the healing of a
Benedictine nun in 2013 afflicted by a debilitating
degenerative illness.
On Monday, the Pope also
recognised the heroic virtues of Servant of God José
Antônio de Maria Ibiapina, a 19th-century Brazilian
politician-turned-priest.
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