Vatican City • Pope Francis has decreed that an American religious brother, James Miller, was killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith during Guatemala’s civil war and can be beatified.
Miller is the second American slain in Guatemala to move a step closer to possible sainthood in recent years. The Rev. Stanley Rother, who was gunned down during the Guatemalan conflict in 1981, was beatified as a martyr in his native Oklahoma last year.
The Vatican said Thursday that Francis approved a decree recognizing that Miller, from Stevens Point, Wisc., died as a martyr on Feb.