Newman 'on the path to sainthood'

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The English Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman has had the path to beatification cleared by the Vatican.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a theological panel has agreed that a miracle can be attributed to the 19th Century cardinal.

But a second miracle is still required before he can be canonized as a saint.

Newman, who founded the Birmingham Oratory and was known for his work with the poor, converted to Catholicism in 1845. He died in 1890.

The panel investigated a claim that Jack Sullivan, a deacon from Boston, Massachusetts, was cured of a serious spinal disease after praying to the cardinal.

If he were beatified, Newman would become the first non-martyred English saint since before the Reformation.

The step-by-step process for his beatification began at the Birmingham Oratory in the late 1950s.

It continued with Pope John Paul II declaring Newman to be Venerable in January 1991.