Postulator

The person who guides a Cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church is known as the postulator. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the Norms to be Observed in Inquiries made by Bishops in the Causes of Saints effective since February 7, 1983. Subject to the approval of the bishop and subject to the requirement that the appointee must be an expert in theological, canonical and historical matters, as well as versed in the practice of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the petitioner who is seeking the beatification of a deceased person may appoint as postulator a priest, a member of an Institute of Consecrated Life, or a lay person. The major religious orders (such as the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits) all appoint from among their number postulators-general who are available to act for petitioners in Causes and who, by the number and variety of the Causes which they direct, acquire both reputation and expertise in that field, much as do senior legal counsel in practice in secular jurisdictions.