The U.S. Catholic bishops have announced an upcoming vote on the possibility of pushing through with investigations that could lead to the eventual beatification and canonization of three American women.
The bishops said they would vote on the matter during their fall general assembly scheduled for Nov. 14 to 17 in Baltimore, Md.
3 Sainthood Candidates
A report by Catholic News Agency (CNA) disclosed that the American bishops are set to put into vote the potential sainthood of Michelle Duppong, Cora Evans, and Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy.
The news outlet said the bishops must first reach a consensus on whether they would kickstart local efforts to take on the causes for beatification and canonization of the three American women.
The Roman Catholic Church's law governing sainthood said that diocesan bishops must first bring up the matter before the regional bishops and put the matter into a vote. Only upon reaching a consensus can they promote the sainthood cause, the report said.
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Michelle Duppong
Michelle Duppong was a former Catholic campus student missionary for FOCUS who served for six years. She eventually became the Diocese of Bismarck's adult faith formation director.
Duppong reportedly underwent surgery in 2014 to remove her ovarian cysts, but her doctor discovered she has stage 4 cancer. Doctors told her she only had two months left, but Duppong went on to live for a whole year until her death on Dec. 25, 2015, at age 31.
"Upon hearing this, I knew that this was God's will and that he would be with me in the midst of whatever would happen. God also allowed me to know that this cross was an invitation to me to help bring others closer in their relationship with him," Duppong wrote in January 2015.
According to Bp. David Kagan of the Diocese of Bismarck, Duppong's life of service should be shared with the bigger Church family.
"Michelle's holiness of life and love for God certainly touched us here in the Diocese of Bismarck, at the University of Mary, and throughout FOCUS, but hers is also a witness which should also be shared with the Universal Church," Kagan told CNA in a separate report.
Cora Evans
Cora Evans was born and raised as a Mormon in 1904.
Evans reportedly bore witness to a Marian apparition when she was 3, but she only started to consider converting to Catholicism on her wedding day.
"I was without a God and religion but had gained a very wonderful husband. As I looked at him and learned to love him more and more, I resolved to help find a God for him. After 10 years of searching, we found the One True God in the Roman Catholic Church," Evans recounted.
Evans eventually converted to the Catholic faith in 1935. Her family followed not long enough.
Fr. Edward Vaughn, the parish priest of the church where she was baptized, said that Evans' conversion to Catholicism inspired many other Mormons to follow suit. Evans also reportedly bore Christ's wound (called the stigmata) and had the gift of bilocation, or the ability to be in two places simultaneously.
Evans died on March 30, 1957, 22 years to the day she was baptized as a Catholic.
Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy
Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy founded the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate in 1893. The organization was Texas' pioneering order of women religious.
Before founding the order, she served as a laywoman working for the causes of African Americans, Mexican Americans, and poor people. She also spent her money to build San Antonio's first Catholic free school and church that catered to African Americans.
The religious order she started eventually grew to 15 sisters plus two postulants at the two of her death in 1907. She was 74.
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