VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV canonized Venezuela’s beloved “doctor of the poor” Sunday before tens of thousands of people, offering the South American nation its first saint and a reason to celebrate amid a yearslong economic crisis and new tensions with the United States.
José Gregorio Hernández, revered by millions for his dedication to poor people, was declared a saint alongside the founder of a Venezuelan religious order, Mother Carmen Rendiles Martínez, at a Mass in St. Peter’s Square that Leo called a “great celebration of holiness.”
Thousands of jubilant Venezuelans filled the square and draped Venezuelan flags on its police barricades, adding splashes of red, blue and
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