The State of Canonizational Cases of the Historical Polish Candidates for Altars

The paper discusses the issue how to define the legal and actual state of the historical cases of Polish candidates for altars. According to Decretum generale of the Congregation for Canonization of 7th February 1983, the proceedings should be conducted “in the spirit of the new law”, which means with the use of the norms of John Paul II's legislation. The results of particular cases relied, therefore, on the actual and legal definition. The paper outlines first the legal and canonical criteria, and then, on the basis of the documents from the postulatory archives, defines the state of cases being at the diocesan and Roman levels. The evidential material as regards ten Polish cases has been subjected to analysis. Some of them are well advanced; others, and all of them are different, may soon be positively solved