"Communion of the Saints" in a Baptistry in Padua (José Luiz | Wikipedia)
On April 24, Pope Francis used the process of equipollent canonization to declare Margaret of Castello to be a saint of the Church.
What did he do, and why does this process exist?
To answer that question, let’s review the development of the process by which the Church declares someone to be a saint.
When St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Church in Rome, he addressed it “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints” (Rom. 1:1). In these and other letters, it was clear that Paul was not using the word “saint” in the sense that we use when we call someone a canonized saint today. Instead, he was referring to the entire body of Christian believers as saints (for example, see Rom. 15:26, 1 Cor. 1:2, Phil. 4:22).