Vatican City, Jun 19, 2013 / 12:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Theologians at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have approved a second miracle granted through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II, moving him closer to being declared a saint.

“The proclamation of his sainthood needs only the approval of the commission of cardinals and bishops and the final signature of Pope Francis,” Italian news agency ANSA reported June 18.

Before Blessed John Paul II can be canonized, the Congregation must formally approve the miracle and present it to Pope Francis. Pope Francis would then promulgate and celebrate the canonization.

The miracle was reportedly approved by two doctors in April as having been a cure that cannot be explained in natural terms.

On April 2, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pontiff's cause for canonization, told CNA that as a second miracle was sought, “I chose a few cases and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints chose one of those, which they are currently evaluating.”

The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints studies each case rigorously, to determine that no scientific explanation for the miracle is possible and that there is a direct relation to the intercession of the possible saint in question.

Msgr. Oder had told Italian daily Avvenire that alleged miracles worked through Blessed John Paul II's intercession had taken place in Poland, Italy, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

Benedict XVI beatified him on May 1, 2011, after a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, was miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease through his intercession.

ANSA speculates that Pope Francis might canonize him on Oct. 20.

Blessed John Paul II died a little over eight years ago, on April 2, 2005. Since he was beatified, his memorial has been celebrated, in certain dioceses, on October 22, the anniversary of his installation as Bishop of Rome.

Vatican City, Jun 19, 2013 / 09:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis warned two Vatican offices attending his morning Mass against being hypocrites, stating it makes everyone “bad.”

“We think about the hypocrisy in the Church and how bad it makes all of us,” the Bishop of Rome told members of the Congregation of Bishops and of the Pontifical Council of the Family June 19.

“These do not know beauty, they do not know love, these do not know the truth. They are small, cowardly.”

He celebrated the Mass at the Saint Martha House alongside the heads of the Congregation and the Council, which include Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and Bishop Jean Lafitte.

The pontiff based his homily on the Gospel of the day, Matthew 6, in which Christ criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for proclaiming their good deeds to the world.

“They have no sense of beauty, they achieve only the beauty of a museum,” said Pope Francis.

“They are intellectuals without talent, ethicists without goodness, the bearers of museum beauty,” he added. “These are the hypocrites that Jesus rebukes so strongly.”

He explained that in the Gospel, Jesus speaks about fasting, prayer and almsgiving, which the Pope called “the three pillars of Christian piety and interior conversion.”

“There are even hypocrites along this path, who make a show of fasting, of giving alms, of praying.”

“I think that when hypocrisy reaches this point in the relation with God, we are coming very close to sin against the Holy Spirit.”

Those who impose “so many precepts on the faithful,” he said, are “hypocrites of casuistry, intellectuals without talent who don’t have the intelligence to find God, to explain God with understanding.”

They thereby prevent themselves and others from entering into the kingdom of God, he said.

“They are ethicists without goodness; they do not know what goodness is, but they are ethicists, aren’t they?” he told the members of the two Vatican offices.

“You have to do this, and this, and this,” said the Pope. “They fill you with precepts, but without goodness.”

He noted “those are some of the phylacteries, of the tassels they lengthen, so many things, to make a pretense of being majestic, perfect, they have no sense of beauty.”

“All of us also have grace, the grace that comes from Jesus Christ, the grace of joy, the grace of magnanimity, of largesse,” he underscored.

“Hypocrites do not know what joy is, what largesse is, what magnanimity is,” he stressed.

The Roman Pontiff then advised them to imitate the publican who prayed with humble simplicity, “have mercy on me, O Lord, a sinner.”

“This is the prayer we should say every day, knowing that we are sinners, but with concrete sins, not theoretical sins.”

“And this prayer will help us to take the opposite road.”

Saint Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese monastic order during the early eleventh century, has his liturgical memorial on June 19. Working within the Western Church’s Benedictine tradition, he revived the primitive monastic practice of hermit life, allowing for greater solitude in a communal setting. Born into an aristocratic family during the middle of the tenth century, Romuald grew up in a luxurious and worldly environment, where he learned little in the way of self-restraint or religious devotion. Yet he also felt an unusual attraction toward the simplicity of monastic life, prompted by the beauty of nature and the experience of solitude . It was not beauty or tranquility, but a shocking tragedy that spurred him to act on this desire. When Romuald was 20 years old, he saw his father Sergius kill one of his relatives in a dispute over some property. Disgusted by the crime he had witnessed, the young man went to the Monastery of St. Apollinaris to do 40 days of penance for his father. These 40 days confirmed Romuald’s monastic calling, as they became the foundation for an entire life of penance. But this would not be lived out at St. Apollinaris, where Romuald’s strict asceticism brought him into conflict with some of the other monks. He left the area near Ravenna and went to Venice, where he became the disciple of the hermit Marinus. Both men went on to encourage the monastic vocation of Peter Urseolus, a Venetian political leader who would later be canonized as a saint. When Peter joined a French Benedictine monastery, Romuald followed him and lived for five years in a nearby hermitage. In the meantime, Romuald’s father Sergius had followed his son’s course, repenting of his sins and becoming a monk himself. Romuald returned to Italy to help his father, after learning that Sergius was struggling in his vocation. Through his son’s guidance, Sergius found the strength to persist in religious life. After guiding his penitent father in the way of salvation, Romuald traveled throughout Italy serving the Church. By 1012 he had helped to establish or reform almost 100 hermitages and monasteries, though these were not connected to one another in the manner of a distinct religious order. The foundations of the Camaldolese order were not laid until 1012 – when a piece of land called the �Camaldoli,� located in the Diocese of Arezzo, was granted to Romuald. It became the site of five hermits’ quarters, and a full monastery soon after. This combination of hermits’ cells and community life, together with other distinctive features, gave this monastery and its later affiliates a distinct identity and charism. Romuald’s approach to the contemplative life, reminiscent of the early Desert Fathers, can be seen in the short piece of writing known as his “Brief Rule.� It reads as follows: “Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms – never leave it.� “If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind. And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.� “Realize above all that you are in God’s presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor. Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.� St. Romuald of Ravenna died in his monastic cell on June 19, 1027. Pope Gregory XIII canonized him in 1582.

6 Now this I say: He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings. 7 Every one as he hath determined in his heart, not with sadness, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound in you; that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work, 9 As it is written: He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever. 10 And he that ministereth seed to the sower, will both give you bread to eat, and will multiply your seed, and increase the growth of the fruits of your justice:11 That being enriched in all things, you may abound unto all simplicity, which worketh through us thanksgiving to God.