Towards Beatification
The Cause of beatification and canonization of Blessed Charles de Foucauld started according to the provisions of the 1917 Codex Iuris Canonici. In 1927, the Apostolic Prefect of Ghardaïa, Sahara, opened the informative process. Seventy-eight texts, most of them de visu, were examined in the ordinary Ghardaïa process and in twelve rogatorial inquiries from 1927 to 1947. On April 13, 1978, the decree of Introduction of the Cause was granted. In 1984, the Rapporteur was appointed. On June 21, 1991, the decree of validity of the ordinary and apostolic processes was issued. On July 27, 1995 the Positio super virtutibus was delivered.
On April 24, 2001, St. John Paul II promulgated the Decree on the heroic virtues of the Servant of God.
On June 24, 2004, the Medical Council of the Congregation unanimously deemed the healing attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God to be scientifically inexplicable.
The Congress of Theological Consultors and the Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops recognized this healing as a miracle, worked by God through the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Charles de Foucauld. On Nov. 13, 2005, he was beatified in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican.
Towards Canonization
In the next phase, the alleged “narrow escape” of a young man, 21 years old, a carpenter’s apprentice, who was the victim of a fall from 15.50 meters was examined.
This accident happened on Nov. 30, 2016, a few hours before Dec. 1, the liturgical memorial of Bl. Charles de Foucauld. It occurred 100 years after the Blessed’s birth to Heaven, in a year when the whole “Spiritual Family Charles de Foucauld” was raising many prayers to ask for his Canonization. Finally, the incident took place in a parish dedicated to him. Thus, at the time of the incident there was already a prayer network in place. Because of the many coincidences of time and place, this prodigy was immediately regarded as a sign from God at the conclusion of the centenary of Bl. Charles de Foucauld.
A week later, the young man left the University Hospital of Angers and, little by little, resumed his professional activity, without any physical or psychological consequences.
In his report, dated May 5, 2017, the doctor consulted by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints emphasized that, due to the violent impact, the expected consequences should have been more serious. He interpreted the happy outcome of the fall as an escaped danger.
Therefore, the Bishop of Angers decided to open a Diocesan Inquiry.
Then, on November 30, 2017, the Opening Session of the Diocesan Inquiry was celebrated. On June 7, 2018, it ended. On September 21, 2018, he Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the Decree of Validity of the Diocesan Inquest.
Given the circumstances, two Ex-Officio Experts appointed by the Dicastery concluded that the episode was an escaped danger due to the absence of much more serious and highly expected injuries.
On November 14, 2019, the Medical Council wrote: “The paucity of the injuries sustained in relation to the modalities of the fall from a height of 15.5 meters in free form is not scientifically explicable and therefore should be framed as an escaped danger.”
The Peculiar Congress of Theological Consultors, held on Feb. 18, 2020, unanimously voted in favour. The fathers Cardinals and Bishops, members of the Congregation, expressed an identical opinion.
Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree super miraculo.
TO READ ALL PAPERS OF THE CANONIZATION PROCESS:
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi – Charles De Foucauld