Aquino to skip canonisation of Filipino saint in Rome

Manila: Philipine President Benigno Aquino is not attending the canonisation of the Philippines' second saint, to be held in Rome in October, said the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

"President Aquino explained he has limited his foreign travel to six a year and that he has a tight schedule in October this year (so he could not attend the canonisation of Pedro Calungsod at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on October 21)," CBCP president and Archbishop of Cebu Jose Palma told CBCP News online.

Instead, Aquino promised to find time to join the CBCP during a thanksgiving mass for Calungsod's canonisation in Cebu in November, said Palma.

"It's (Cebu) a bit near so I can probably join the event [there]," Palma quoted Aquino as saying.

In October 2011, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated a decree which acknowledged that the miraculous survival of a businesswoman from a coma in a hospital in Cebu in 2003, was due to Calungsod's intercession. It was the last step that led to his declaration as a saint.

Calungsod and six other religious men and women will be canonised in Rome in October.