Vatican City, Sep 5, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Pope Benedict XVI is to declare five people saints next month as he will preside over his first saint-making ceremony, canonizing the five in St. Peter's Square on October 23, Vatican Radio reported Monday. Among them are an Archbishop, a Chilean priest, one lay brother and two priests founders of religious orders.
Among the five is Josef Bilczewski, the Polish archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine, who was greatly admired by Catholics, Orthodox and Jews alike during World War I, Vatican Radio said. Also being canonized is a priest from Lviv, Rev. Zygmunt Gorazdowski, who founded the Congregation for the Sisters of St. Joseph to care for the sick and poor. A Chilean Jesuit, the Rev. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, and Italians Felice da Nicosia, a Franciscan lay brother who lived in the 1700s, and the Rev. Gaetano Cantanoso, who founded a religious order, will also be canonized.