Feb. 22, 2021
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood cause of one of Princes William and Harry's 19th-century ancestors as well as the causes of three Italian nuns who died from the Ebola virus while ministering to patients in Congo.
The pope signed the decrees Feb. 20 during a meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. The Vatican published the decrees the same day.
Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Passionist Father Ignatius Spencer, the great-great-great uncle of the late-Princess Diana, mother to Prince William, the second in the line of succession to the Britain's throne. Father Spencer had planned a career as an Anglican priest but became a Catholic shortly after practicing the faith was legalized in Britain in 1829. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1832 and died in Scotland in 1864.