Church to List 3 More Saints and 9 New Blessed

The Church will canonize three more saints, including a Ukrainian archbishop and a priest who founded a newspaper.

The Vatican Congregation for Sainthood Causes promulgated the decrees for the three today in the presence of John Paul II and the postulators for respective causes.

It also promulgated 19 decrees clearing the way for nine people to be beatified and 10 others who will be recognized for their heroic virtues and dubbed Servants of God.

Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican congregation, read a discourse about the lives of the Servants of God and the blessed during today's ceremony.

"These witnesses of the Gospel continue to speak to the Church and the world through the heroism of their virtues and the holiness of their works," the cardinal said.

"Their memory is particularly alive and incisive in the ecclesial and religious communities of which they formed a part and who served in the name and charity of Christ," he said in the Pope's presence.

The three to be canonized saints are:

-- Blessed Joseph Bilczewski, a Ukrainian archbishop of Leopoli of the Latins (1860-1923). He was a point of reference for Catholics, Orthodox and Jews during World War I and later conflicts.

-- Blessed Zygmunt Gorazdowski, a Ukrainian diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph (1845-1923). He was also the author of a popular catechism and founded a newspaper and several charitable institutions.

-- Blessed Gaetano Catanoso, an Italian diocesan priest and founder Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Veronica, Missionaries of the Holy Face (1879-1963).