(OSV News) — Servant of God Thea Bowman’s canonization cause is moving ahead, with a Mass and ceremony marking the closure of the cause’s diocesan phase to be held Feb. 9 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson, Mississippi.
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of Jackson will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving at noon followed by an official closing session of the diocesan phase of the canonization process, where the cause’s leaders will seal the boxes containing the diocesan phase’s documents and findings. Those boxes will be shipped to the apostolic nunciature in Washington for transfer to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican, which will further investigate the cause.
In 2018, Bishop Kopacz opened the cause for Sister Bowman, a Mississippi native and the only African American member of her religious community, the Wisconsin-based Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Before she died of cancer in 1990 at age 52, she was a widely known speaker, evangelizer and singer…