Playing God... No Second Miracle required Newchurch decides who is and who is not a saint.

Jerusalem Church readies for first modern Palestinian saints – A bit late, Vatican officially approves Serra sainthood.

JERUSALEM: Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarchate yesterday hailed the upcoming canonization by Pope Francis of two nuns who will become the first modern-day Palestinian saints. Marie Alphonsine Ghattas of Jerusalem and Mariam Bawardy of Galilee, both of whom lived in Ottoman Palestine during the 19th century, will be canonized at the Vatican in Rome later this month. “In Rome, Pope Francis will declare on May 17 two Palestinian nuns as saints, and we are in full preparation,” Bishop William Shomali told journalists.

The pair’s canonization “means that holiness is still possible, that... spiritual perfection is still possible,” he said. “Our Holy Land continues to be holy, not only because of the holy places it hosts, but also because good people live here.” Pope Francis announced in February that the two nuns would be canonized-the first Palestinian Arabs to gain sainthood. Ghattas was born in Jerusalem in 1847, and died there in 1927. She was beatified-the final step before canonization-in 2009. Bawardy was born in Galilee, now in northern Israel, in 1843. She became a nun in France and died in Bethlehem in 1878.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1983. Although there are several saints who lived in the region during Christianity’s early days, Bawardy and Ghattas are the first to be canonized from Ottoman-era Palestine. “The Catholic Church has its own parameters to honor the best and outstanding among its faithful,” Shomali said. “Our Holy Land has given hundreds of saints during its long history. Our greatest saint is Holy Mary, mother of Jesus. “But we have three only from the modern period, whose language was not Greek, or Latin, nor Aramaic, but Arabic.” The canonization of a third Palestinian-a Salesian monk-is still under review by the Church

Serra sainthood

In another development, the Vatican’s saintmaking office has officially given its thumbs up for the Rev. Junipero Serra to be declared a saint - four months after Pope Francis announced he would canonize the controversial 18th-century missionary during his upcoming visit to the United States. Serra is hailed by the Catholic Church as a great evangelizer who established 21 missions across California.

Many Native Americans, though, accuse him of forced conversions, enslaving converts and helping wipe out indigenous populations as part of the European colonization machine in the Americas. The unusual process that Serra’s sainthood case has taken indicates that Francis personally willed the canonization and that the normal vetting process by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which ended with the Vatican announcement yesterday, was something of a formality.

In fact, the congregation didn’t even approve a second miracle attributed to Serra’s intervention - the normal way someone is canonized. Rather, Serra joins several new saints simply declared such by Francis in an equivalent process. The Vatican said yesterday that the congregation’s cardinals and bishop members had arrived at an “affirmative sentence” concerning Serra’s canonization and that Francis had approved their decision.

Last month, a congregation official acknowledged that it would have been difficult for the members to have done otherwise given the canonization ceremony was already scheduled.

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