Rome Newsroom, Jul 22, 2020 / 08:15 am
More than 48,000 people have signed an online petition asking the Brazilian bishops to open a beatification cause for the most recent bishop to die from the coronavirus.
Bishop Henrique Soares da Costa of Palmares, Brazil, died of COVID-19 on July 18, at the age of 57. Da Costa had been hospitalized for more than two weeks of treatment in the intensive care unit of the St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
The petition, which was posted on CitizenGo July 19, asks the bishops' conference of Brazil to appeal to the Vatican to waive the five-year waiting period to open a beatification cause for da Costa.
Ordinarily, the Vatican mandates waiting at least five years after a person's death before a cause for his or her beatification is opened, however, the pope can choose to waive the requirement.