Two groups are advocating for Mother Mary Lange of Baltimore, where she moved from Cuba and began educating Black people — whose education, many felt, was undeserved.
Mary Sewell has long felt invisible to her religion, even inside the walls of the predominantly Black St. Ann’s Church in East Baltimore, where she has practiced her Catholic faith for over 50 years. But she’s actively working to fix that.
According to
Becoming a saint — or being canonized — is a time-consuming and thorough procedure that can take decades or over a century. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes approximately 10,000 saints, with fewer than a dozen being Americans.
The process is divided into several stages, starting with a local bishop ensuring the deceased has been dead for five years or more. Their life is extensively examined before they’re granted Venerable status, which Lange received on June 22.
The hardest part of the procedure is probably having to prove miracles, which calls for close examination by specialists.
“In the 21st century,” said Dave Collins, a Roman Catholic priest and history professor at Georgetown University, “miracles are generally healings from some illness or sickness for which there is no immediate scientific explanation.”
They are believed to have happened as a result of someone praying to someone viewed as having a direct line to God. Gilbert said that Lange was the bestower of many miracles, including the recovery of a sepsis-stricken woman.
After the first miracle is proven, the person is called Blessed, and after the second miracle, sainthood is declared.
While the Oblates believe in the Catholic Church’s canonization approach, the committee wishes to expedite the process.
Nobody knows when the Pope will make a decision, but a more progressive pope who just allowed Catholic blessings for same-sex couples appears to work in their favor.
“We could say in general, it’s taken the Catholic Church too long to recognize, value, lift up and appreciate, and really applaud and proclaim the contributions of Black Catholics in this country,” said Bruce Lewandowski, a vicar for Baltimore, The Banner reported.
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