The Vatican has halted the sainthood cause of a renowned Jesuit priest, author and survivor of Soviet imprisonment after determining that documentation gathered over decades did not support advancing his case for beatification, according to Church officials and recent Catholic news reports.
The decision concerns the canonisation process of a priest widely known for ministering to fellow prisoners during more than two decades of incarceration in the Soviet Union, an experience he later documented in widely read spiritual works. Church authorities indicated that the suspension followed extended study and evaluation conducted under the procedures governing causes for sainthood.
