Chicago Tribunal

Besides being lengthy and laborious, adding a new saint to the Roman Catholic calendar is an expensive business. Many hearings are held, many investigations made into the life of the person proposed for canonization. Alleged miracles, upon which beatification and subsequent canonization depend, must be diligently checked by expert scientists and doctors. Then, if the cause is successful elaborate ceremonies are held in St. Peter's in Rome. All this runs to money. The Roman Catholic faithful are giving sums which may eventually total as much as 1,000,000 lire ($70,000) to make a saint of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart,* on whose case hearings were in progress last week at Chicago. Youngest of 13 children, Frances Cabrini was born in Italy in 1850. She founded her sisterhood in 1880. Saved as a child from drowning, she had a lifetime horror of water, but this did not keep her from crossing the Atlantic 24 times on the business of the order. The Sacred Heart Sisters now have 5,000 members, maintain 200 institutions all over the world, including Columbus Hospital in Chicago where Mother Cabrini died in 1917. Last week was a busy and exciting one for the sisters in Columbus Hospital. The cause of Mother Cabrini after being heard in Rome had reached the stage of "Apostolic Process" in which a church tribunal could be held to investigate miracles and "heroic virtues." The Holy See ordered that it take place in Chicago with George Cardinal Mundelein as judge. "Devil's advocates" were appointed to cross-examine witnesses and eliminate spurious miracles. One of them, Monsignor Giovanni Delia Cioppa, came all the way from Rome. Churchmen could recall no such tribunal having taken place before in the U.S. In strictest secrecy, by candlelight behind locked doors in an austere chamber in Columbus Hospital, one witness at a time appeared before the court. Black-robed nuns swished through the hospital corridors, attending to the needs of judges, advocates and witnesses. Across the hall nuns vowed to secrecy bent over desks, laboriously making four copies in longhand of all testimony, to be sent to Rome. Every day Monsignor Cioppa distributed hard candies in little silk bags stitched by the nuns, explaining that this was an old Italian custom signifying Joy and Peace. Two miracles are necessary for beatification. In Chicago last week appeared Sister Delfina Grazioli of Seattle who says she had four major operations before December 1925. Given the deathbed rite of Extreme Unction, she saw a vision of mother Cabrini, soon recovered. Next week in Chicago doctors were to examine Peter Smith, 12, of Manhattan. Peter Smith was blinded soon after birth, when a careless nurse washed his eyes with silver nitrate in 50% solution instead of 1%. He also contracted pneumonia. Prayers were addressed to Mother Cabrini. Peter Smith regained his health, his sight and now plans to become a priest.

After the hearings in Chicago, some members of the tribunal will proceed to West Park, N. Y. where the body of Mother Cabrini will be exhumed from its vault, identified. They will scrutinize it for unusual signs of preservation--an aid but not an essential to beatification.

*Not to be confused with the international Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, famed for its socialite schools, founded by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat.

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