the time after to ensure the cause could be opened. Further steps were taken in 1999. The cause was introduced on 23 May 2000 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat (no objections to the cause) edict and titled Tantardini as a Servant of God. The diocesan process for the cause was inaugurated in the Taunggyi archdiocese under Archbishop Matthias U Shwe on 2 August 2001 who also closed it sometime later. The documentation and witness testimonies (gathered from people in Taunggyi and Milan) were sent to the C.C.S. in Rome for additional assessment; the C.C.S. validated the diocesan process on 28 January 2005 as having adhered to their rules for conducting diocesan processes. The postulator (the officials leading and coordinating the cause) compiled and submitted the Positio dossier to the C.C.S. in 2011 for evaluation. In June 2016 the PIME Superior General Father Ferruccio Brambillasca met with the then-C.C.S. Prefect Cardinal Angelo Amato to discuss the current state of the cause. Amato sent him a letter not long after telling Brambillasca that the Positio would be examined in the first half of 2018. The nine theologians issued their unanimous approval of the cause on 22 May 2018. The C.C.S. cardinal and bishop members approved the cause sometime later. Tantardini became titled as Venerable on 11 June 2019 after Pope Francis signed a decree that acknowledged the fact that Tantardini had practiced heroic virtue throughout his life. The first postulator for the cause was Piero Ghetto (until his death in 2018) and the current postulator since 2018 is the PIME priest Giovanni Musi. References External links Hagiography Circle 1898 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Italian people 20th-century venerated Christians Italian blacksmiths Carpenters Italian expatriates in Myanmar Italian military personnel of World War I Italian prisoners of war Italian Roman Catholic missionaries People from the Province of Lecco Italian plumbers Prisoners of war held by Germany Roman Catholic missionaries in Myanmar Roman Catholic religious brothers Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis World War I prisoners of war