[ad_1]
Pope Francis on Saturday put 20th-century statesman Robert Schuman, one of the founders of modern Europe, on the path to sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. A Vatican statement said the Pope approved a decree recognising the “heroic virtues” of Schuman, who died in 1963.
The recognition is one of the earliest stages of the long process that can lead to canonisation.
The news infuriated eurosceptics across the bloc.
AfD German MEP Dr Gunnar Beck blasted: “The left-wing policymaking continues in the Vatican: Pope Francis wants to make Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the EU, a saint!
“Above all, Schuman wanted to protect the French steel industry against German competition!”
Mr Schuman’s work was instrumental in the founding of today’s European institutions, such as the European Union.
Mr Schuman, who served as French prime minister and foreign minister in the immediate post-World War II period, also played a role in the founding of NATO.
In 1950 the “Schuman Plan” proposed a supranational community for coal and steel.
READ MORE: Thousands of Europeans facing losing benefits in UK
Pope Francis’ approval of the decree means Mr Schuman now has the title “venerable”.
One miracle would have to be attributed to Mr Schuman for him to be beatified and then another for him to be made a saint.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.
A miracle is usually the medically inexplicable healing of a person.
The France-based Institute Saint Benoit has been promoting sainthood for Mr Schuman for several decades.
Its theologians and historians heard witnesses and examined all of his writing for documentation that was sent to the Vatican and that resulted in Saturday’s decree.
[ad_2]