The Church beatifies five priests shot during the Commune

What does the “beatification” ritual that will take place on Saturday April 21 at 4:00 p.m. in the imposing Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris mean?

A Roman cardinal, the Italian Marcello Semeraro, made the trip for this rare event.

Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican, he will preside, in the name of Pope Francis, at a mass with the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, accompanied by dozens of bishops, hundreds of priests and faithful, the church that can hold 2,500 people.

Five priests, all shot dead in rue Haxo, in Paris, on May 26, 1871, will then be beatified.

Beatification expresses, for the Catholic Church, the official recognition of an exemplary Christian life until death and the certainty that the soul of the person concerned is in "paradise", close to God from where it can " intercede" if asked to do so in prayer.

Several decades of investigation

The Vatican is prudent and slow on the subject for centuries.

Before the pope issues a decree...

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