Church to beatify married couple together

By Katherine Shaw FOR TILE first time in Church history, a married couple are to be beatified together.
The announcement was made last week at the promulgation of decrees by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. John Paul II is said to have long desired to be able to raise both a husband and a wife to the status of Blessed simultaneously.
Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi, the first couple to be beatified together, are seen as an outstanding example of a couple who fostered a strong sense of Christianity within their Italian home.
Mr Quattrocchi was a deputy-general attorney and a personal friend of many of the politicians such as Alcide de Gasperi and Luigi Gedda, who played a great part in the work to rebuild Italy after Mussolini's rule and the Second World War.
Maria, née Corsini, worked as a professor and writer of tutorial subject matter, and was an active member of the Women's Catholic Action Association.
Miracles have been attested to the intercession of both husband and wife, who will be beatified at a Vatican ceremony with 13 others at a date which has not yet been named.
Three of the couple's four children grew up to become priests, and attended the ceremony on Friday. Mr and Mrs Quattrocchi died at the ages 71 and 81 respectively, in 1951 and 1965.
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins said that they "made a true domestic church of their family, which was open to life, to prayer, to the social apostolate, to solidarity with the poor and to friendship".
Next stop: Kazakhstan
POPE JOFIN Paul II is to visit Kazakhstan in September, as part of his visit to Armenia.
Mgr Renato Baccorato, the organiser of papal visits, has already journeyed to Kazakhstan in preparation.
Kasakhstan, a country halfway between Rome and Beijing, has a very small Catholic presence, which makes up only two per cent of the population.
The trip has been planned since 1999 when the Pope was invited to Kasaldistan by President Nursultan Nazarbayev during an audience in the Vatican.
Bishops serve, says Pope
THE POPE has emphasised the bishop's rote as a servant.
John Paul IT reiterated the need for a bishop to be above all the servant of his people, at a meeting of 153 pastors of the dioceses, which was attended by the eight bishops of England and Wales who have been ordained over the last year.
The bishops were in Rome for a study meeting organised by the Vatican Congregation for Bishops.
The purpose was to study topics and practical problems which challenge the life of a bishop, and to strengthen their ministry.
The Holy Father challenged the bishops to be a "sign of the love of Christ for every human person" and "the servant of all".
He added that: "the ministry of the bishop is not lived under the flag of triumphalism, but rather the cross of Christ."