Procedure for the Beatification of the Servant of God Dora Visser
Beatification of Dora Visser
Fulfilment of the following criteria is required for beatification:
A) A miracle at the intercession of the candidate that is medically unexplainable.
B) The “Vita Documentata”: research into virtues (faith, hope and love), the life (biography) and the extent to which the candidate was renowned for holiness.
A) The documentation concerning the miracle is already sealed and since 2003 deposited with the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
B) The “Vita Documentata” is rounded off in February 2013 during a formal sitting in the presence of the entire second tribunal.
When the Second Tribunal closed in February 2013, the items were signed, packed and sealed in a briefcase. This was brought to the Apostolic Nuntius in Den Haag, Archbishop Dupuy, who saw to it that the briefcase was deposited with the Congregation in Rome.
De “Regent” (head of the cause) is Curia Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu.
Both parts have arrived at the archive of the Congregation in Rome.
A) The Postulator (W. Hilgeman) writes a letter to the Curia Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu requesting that he break the seals of both briefcases and open them.
B) The items are handed over to the secretary of the Congregation, who checks the files for correctness of presentation according to “Sanctorum Mater”, a procedural code.
C) After approval the items are passed on to the Vatican Press. A light grey book is made of each part (“Copia de Publica”).
D) Both “Copia de Publica” go to the postulator Waldery Hilgeman. The “Vita Documentata” is partly amended according to Vatican protocol and is then called the “Super Vita”. The Postulator also writes a judgement over both parts, called the “positio”.
E) Both “Copia de Publica”, the “positiones” and the “Super Vita” are handed by the Postulator to the Vatican Press.
F) The Vatican Press prints and binds new books (c. 100 copies) in red with gold lettering “Beatificationis en Canonizationis servae dei Dorothea Visser” (“Beatification and Canonisation of the Servant of God, Dorothea Visser”).
G) The Postulator asks the Curia Cardinal to form the first Commission, which consists of ten cardinals and five other religious. This commission studies the Vita Documentata- Virtutibus and the Fama Sanctitatis, all within the Congregation. If this Commission is unanimous that the renown of holiness is valid, a decree is issued that is signed by the whole commission. The Curia Cardinal receives this decree and gives Dora the title “Venerable”. Then the Curia Cardinal forms a second commission which will study the miracle of 2003.
This commission consists of ten cardinals and ten people from the medical world. They each receive a red book and study the miracle, also within the Congregation. If all are unanimous that it is a real miracle, a further decree is made and signed by all. Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu presents both decrees to the Pope and requests from him a Decree of Beatification.
