The Vatican has given the go-signal to open an inquiry into the cause for sainthood of a lay catechist from the Diocese of Pasig.
Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara announced the granting of the “nihil obstat” by the Vatican to the cause for beatification and canonization of Laureana Franco, known as “Ka Luring” to her humble community in Hagonoy, Taguig.
Franco, who died after battling cancer in 2011, had served as a volunteer catechist beginning in the late 1960s, and whose reputation for holiness was known to then Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, who gave her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award on behalf of Pope St. John Paul II in 1990.
The protocol was signed by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints in response to Vergara’s request for a nihil obstat in March, and was handed to the Pasig bishop by the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, and his secretary, Msgr. Giuseppe Trentadue.
“May I ask for your unceasing prayers as we do the next steps required by the dicastery,” Vergara said in a Facebook post.
The nihil obstat, which means “nothing obstructs” or “nothing stands in the way,” allows the diocese to proceed with an inquiry into Franco’s heroic virtues, one of the first steps that could lead to beatification and eventual sainthood.
Vergara opened Franco’s cause in February 2024 and urged the laity to provide any “helpful information.” Erickson S. Javier, a doctor of ministry was named postulator of the cause.
