TIMES ONLINE: The controversial wartime pope accused of failing to openly condemn the Holocaust has moved a step closer to sainthood, the Vatican has confirmed.
Pope Pius XII will be declared venerable after the current pontiff Pope Benedict XVI approved a "heroic virtues decree", the first of three stages before canonisation.
To be declared venerable, a church investigation has to conclude that the person in question lived a life of exemplary holiness and heroic virtue. There must be nothing in the dead person’s writings that enables these characteristics to be challenged. >>> Simon Alford | Saturday, December 19, 2009
