By IANS,
New Delhi : Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, head of the Indian Catholic delegation that is in Vatican City for the canonisation of Kerala nun Sister Alphonsa, has been hospitalised due to chest pain, members of the Indian delegation said Sunday.
Vithayathil, who was admitted to hospital Saturday, he could not attend the holy mass at the Basilica of St. Anthony where Sister Alphonsa’s biography was read out.
Congress legislator K.V. Thomas, who is part of the Indian delegation, confirmed the news and said Vithayathil’s condition is stable now.
He will not be able to attend the canonisation ceremony as he will be in hospital, a delegation member said.
Pope Benedict had cleared Sister Alphonsa’s name for canonisation on June 1, 2007, a process that was started 55 years ago. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1986 in Kottayam, 40 years after her death.
Alphonsa was born in Kudamaloor, a village near Kottayam, to Joseph and Mary Aug 19, 1910, and after facing several health problems she died July 28, 1946, in Bharnanganam.
She will be the second saint from India to be canonised.
In the 19th century, Saint Gonsalo Garcia, born in Vasai near Mumbai to an Indian mother and Portuguese father in 1556, was declared a saint.