VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has set Oct. 12 as the date to make two U.S. saints: Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian who spent most of her life in what is now upstate New York, and Mother Marianne Cope, who began religious life in the same area but moved to Hawaii to care for leprosy patients.
Benedict had already approved miracles attributed to the two, the final step toward sainthood. At the end of a ceremony Saturday to make 22 new cardinals — including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan — Benedict announced the date for canonization of the two women and five others.
Dolan marveled that his first official act as a cardinal was to formally OK the New York-area saints. He quipped: "As grateful as I am for being a cardinal, I really want to be a saint."
Shares