I was so happy to read this post by Jesuit Father James Martin, reporting that Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks, may be inching closer to canonization. Apparently the required miracle has been under investigation for quite some time and is now in the hands of the Vatican. It feels like this one has been a long time coming.
According to Father Martin's post and a story on the Canada.com website, the miracle in question is a "closely guarded secret."
From the Canada.com story:
"Evidence of the miracle -- which took two years to compile -- was sent to Rome last month in a diplomatic pouch through the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C., said Monsignor Paul Lenz, the church official who was charged with finding a miracle that could qualify Kateri for sainthood. The matter now rests with the Vatican's Secretariat for Beatification and Canonization, which will issue a recommendation to the Pope, who will make a final decision on Kateri's beatification, said Lenz. 'Only God knows' how long the process could take, Lenz said this week in an interview with Canwest News Service."I live less than an hour from the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, which is Kateri's birthplace and the place where Jesuit missionaries St. Isaac Jogues and St. Rene Goupil and lay missioner St. John Lalande were martyred. Last fall I spent two nights camping at the shrine with my son's Boy Scout troop. It is a truly sacred place, where the courage of Kateri's life and the faith of the martyred missionaries is so powerful that even a bunch of 12-year-old Boy Scouts were obviously awed by what they experienced walking through the ravine marked with St. Isaac Jogues' own words and on the paths that recall the holy lives that left their imprint there. (You can read my blog post about that camping retreat by clicking HERE.)
Visit the shrine if you can, and celebrate the life of this Native American holy woman who clearly was a spiritual force to be reckoned with. Her actions, her willingness to go against the signs of her times and the traditions of her culture in order to embrace Christianity have made her a saint in the eyes of many Catholics, with or without the official title.
