The Vatican has approved the inquiry into the cause for sainthood of Filipino catechist Laurena ‘Ka Luring’ Franco.
Diocese of Pasig Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara confirmed this after receiving the “nihil obstat” from Vatican, stating that nothing stands in the way of the cause of beatification and canonization of Franco.
“Having examined the matter, I am pleased to inform Your Excellency that on the part of the Holy See, there is nothing that stands against the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of the abovementioned Servant of God LAUREANA “Ka Luring” FRANCO from being carried out, observing the “Norms to be observed in the Inquiries made by the Bishops in the Causes of Saints”, issued by the same Dicastery on February 7, 1983,” the letter read.
Franco, who left her job to serve as a volunteer catechist in the 1960s, died from cancer in 2011.
She was a recipient of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award from Pope St. John Paul II in 1990 through the recommendation of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.
The protocol was signed by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints, and was handed by apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, and his secretary, Msgr. Giuseppe Trentadue, from Rome.
Through the nihil obstat, a Latin phrase for “nothing stands in the way,” permits the diocese to begin its probe into Franco’s life as part of the beatification process.
“May I ask for your unceasing prayers as we do the next steps required by the dicastery,” Vergara said.
