Politics bar Paul VI from ranks of saints

by our Rome correspondent VATICAN sources claimed this week that only pnlitics stood in the way of the beatification of Pope Paul VI.
According to reports from the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, the preliminary procedure for the beatification of Pius IX was concluded five years ago.
Miracles are also attributed to the intercession of Pius IX who established the dogmas of Papal Infallibility and the Immaculate Conception and whose pontificate. between 1846 and 1876 was one of the longest in Church history.
John Paul 11 however has not given his final approval. Sources said that the pontiff feared that the beatification of Pius IX, who was opposed to the unification of
Italy in his lifetime. might fuel the separatist movement in the country, where the Milan-based Lombardy League, with its federalist ambitions, has stirred traditional north-south tensions following the party's considerable electoral showing in the April general elections.
Pending the Pope's decision on the "heroic virtue" of Pius IX, his supporters have formed an organisation, the International Committee for the Glorification of Pius IX.
Its aim is to accelerate the beatification process, and among its adherents are a number of Italian bishops. The cause's postulator Fr Antonio Piolanti, said that the Pope's delay was based on "political and historical reasons".