coming up, the beatification of pope john paul ii. how does someone become a roman catholic saint? also, in india, yoga for prisoners. and remembering the holocaust. major funding for "religion and ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lilly endowment, an indianapolis based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development, and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company.

and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. hundreds of thousands gathered for celebrations in rome this weekend as pope john paul ii moves to the final stage before being proclaimed a saint. john paul's beatification comes just six years after his death. it's the fastest on record. the roman catholic church has a complicated and usually very lengthy process for recognizing sainthood. kim lawton has our special report. >> reporter: saints have been part of the roman catholic church for centuries, as heroes, patrons, intercessors and spiritual companions. but the path to sainthood is never an easy one. >> the lives of the saints show us that, you know, god makes holiness out of all sorts of different materials.

>> reporter: many religious traditions honor people who are considered especially holy. but the catholic church has a uniquely complex system for declaring someone a saint. it's a multistep canonization process that has evolved since the 13th century. father james martin is author of the book "my life with the saints." >> the catholic church has a more complicated process than anyone else on almost any topic, basically. i think it's important for people to know that when we hold up someone for public veneration or as an example, that their life has been thoroughly investigated. >> reporter: the process usually begins in the region where the potential saint lived or is buried. after local catholics show a particular devotion to the person, the bishop opens an investigation into the case or "cause" for sainthood. a point person called a "postulator" oversees the cause. according to the rules, there should be a five-year waiting period after the person's death. but in the cases of both john paul ii and mother teresa, that waiting period was waived.

>> some people have argued, you know, why rush them? you know what's the rush? i mean they'll be a saint in ten years, or 20 years, or 30 years, so why not let the process sort of go its normal route? on the other hand people say, well, you know, the pope is responding to the desires of the people, which is what people always want the vatican to do. >> reporter: at the dominican house of studies in washington, d.c., father gabriel o'donnell is a postulator. he actually went to postulator school at the vatican. o'donnell shepherded the cause for father michael mcgivney, founder of the knights of columbus. that cause has advanced several stages in the process. o'donnell has now begun work on a new cause, for rose hawthorne, the daughter of 19th century author nathaniel hawthorne. she cared for low-income cancer patients. >> the first thing you have to do is research anything the person has written or published. and then you begin studying anything they have left behind in terms of documentation. >> reporter: it can be a

tedious, arduous process, which includes interviewing people who knew the potential saint or were affected by his or her work. the church teaches that in order to be a saint, someone must have lived a life of "heroic virtue." >> a life of holiness basically, a life of charity, christian charity and love, service to the poor often, but, you know, the person has to be holy on a personal level beyond just doing, you know, great deeds, beyond just founding a religious order or being pope or something like that. >> but you're also looking for the flaws because the whole idea of the saint is that they've overcome their difficulties, you know. not that they didn't have any. one of the things that the church is very strong about is that if you can find anything negative, you have to make that known. >> reporter: there even used to be an official role for someone to argue against the cause. it was known as "the devil's advocate," although the position was eliminated in 1983. the evidence, usually thousands of pages, must be assembled according to the vatican's strict set of guidelines or norms.

>> page after page of norms and you have to follow each step carefully. if you miss a step, the whole thing can be thrown out as invalid. and it's happened to some causes. >> reporter: if the evidence is approved, the person is declared "venerable," worthy of consideration. a special vatican office, the congregation for the causes of saints, takes over the cause. and the search begins for a miracle attributed to the intercession of the potential saint after his or her death. in catholic teaching, the miracle is confirmation that the person is indeed in heaven. >> the point of the miracle which fascinates many people but also puzzles them is that if the church is going to declare this person to be blessed or a saint, the church is looking for some sign from god, so it's what we call the "digitus dei" or the finger of god says "yeah." >> reporter: any reported miracles are subjected to rigorous review by a panel of scientists and doctors.

>> the vatican's bar is very high. so the miracle, which is usually a medical miracle or a healing, must be instantaneous, right? it must be non-recurring. it must be not attributable to any other treatment basically, and it must just be the result of praying to that one saint, so, and it must be medically verifiable. the doctors and scientists basically don't say this is a miracle or not, they say to the vatican, "this is inexplicable. >> reporter: it's up to the pope to declare it a miracle, and if he does so, the person is eligible for beatification, although martyrs, those who died for the faith, may be beatified without a verified miracle. in beatification, the person is given the title "blessed." >> it's a recognition of the person's holiness and importance for the worldwide church, and of course canonization is a much more sort of broad stamp of approval by the church. but even "blessed," i mean someone like blessed mother teresa, you know is already being venerated worldwide, as

she was in her lifetime. >> reporter: for a declaration of sainthood, a second miracle must be verified, and it must have taken place after beatification. that can take many more years. the first american citizen to be proclaimed a saint was frances xavier cabrini, who was canonized in 1946. mother cabrini was born in italy, but came to the u.s. in 1889 to help italian immigrants. every year, some 80,000 people come to her shrine in new york, where a wax figure lies over some of her remains. >> she is a person who had many struggles, many faults, many failings, but her life was centered on god. >> reporter: sister thomasina lanski is administrator of the shrine. she says like all saints, mother cabrini plays several roles for catholics. >> people actually can come, we have her relic, and they can be blessed by her. and i think it's important that

when people come to pray to mother cabrini, they're praying for her intercession. we never worship her. we worship the lord. and we talk always about prayers through mother cabrini, to be answered by the lord. we never say the prayers are answered by mother cabrini. >> reporter: father o'donnell says the concept of intercession is often misunderstood. >> the idea of a saint is that he or she is before the throne of god in heaven. and that one asks them, you know, to intercede and pray for us. so we're all praying to god together, because we believe that they are with god. they're the friends of god, and it's in the bad to talk to somebody's friends, you know. >> reporter: are there people who might be saints, but just not recognized? >> oh, sure. oh, my gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah. i could name my own parents, at least my own mother. i don't think my father would.

you meet saints all the time. but they're never going to be beatified, you know, or canonized. no, it is quite amazing how many people live heroic lives quietly. >> reporter: father martin says he prays to saints every day. he keeps what he calls his "wall of fame" with pictures of saints and potential saints. >> some of my favorites are mother teresa is here as a real example of working with the poor. joan of arc i think is someone who is true to her vision. dorothy day was an apostle, really, of social justice here in new york, here's st. ignatius loyola, the founder of the jesuit order over there. when i'm sick i pray to st. bernadette, the visionary of lourdes. when i pray for humility, i pray to therese of liseux, so they each sort of have different roles as it were in my life. these are really the ones i look to as my heroes, really, my spiritual heroes. >> he says it's spiritually encouraging to learn that saints were real people. >> by putting the saint on a pedestal, sometimes literally, we remove them from our own

lives and we make them less meaningful and it sort of gets us off the hook. we say, "let's leave the tough christianity to them." >> reporter: martin acknowledges that for some catholics veneration of the saints can border almost on the superstitious. but he believes a bigger problem is dismissing them altogether. in an era of skepticism and scandal, many catholics believe saints can help attract people to the faith. >> i find that when i'm preaching or talking in a parish or talking to people in general about this, they're pretty receptive to saints, even if they're not so receptive to the hierarchy or a priest or something. the holy person, the holy man, the holy woman, this fascinates people still and i think it draws them. >> reporter: and, the church teaches, that's the way it's been for centuries. >> but kim, i gather that not everyone is totally enthusiastic about john paul's beatification? >> reporter: there has been some

controversy. advocates for people who were abused by priests say it really sends a bad message for the church to be beatifying, to be grant be honor to someone that presided over the church the time when sex abuse crisis was really spiraling. there are questions about what john paul knew, how much he could have done and didn't do to prevent the crisis, to punish some of the priests who were involved. and so they've raised objections on that grounds. other people have talked about the timetable, it was a very fast-tracked process and why not let it take its normal route to sainthood. so there has been some controversy, but the church says that it's just responding to the groundswell of support for john paul ii, which is how any sainthood process begins. >> but that said, there are messages that are sent by who is put on this track and how fast it is. >> reporter: there are several people who question whether political influence is involved in the process.

the fact that some people do seem to get fast-tracked and others, the late pope john xxiii, who did the vatican council, or the slain archbishop oscar romero, very popular as well, but their cases haven't been fast-tracked and so there are people who look at that and say why these guys and not these guys? >> and john paul ii when he was pope he presided over a lot, a lot of saints. >> reporter: he loved the saints, he felt they were important for the church and so he actually streamlined the process for sainthood when he became pope. and during his almost 27 years as pope he actually canonized almost 500 people and beatified another some 1,300. and that's more than all of his predecessors combined. >> kim lawton, many thanks. in other news, religious groups rushed to help victims of the devastating tornados that struck several southern states

this week. volunteers delivered food, aided in cleaning up debris and provided spiritual counseling. in one of the worst hit states, alabama, a church leader referred to the disaster as "our katrina." 300 people were killed and thousands were left homeless or without power. many churches were damaged. this was the worst series of tornadoes in almost 40 years. the u.s. commission on international religious freedom released its annual report identifying several countries that it said routinely violate religious rights. the list once again included china, iran, pakistan, and others. but for the first time, egypt was on the list of the worst violators because of the increased violence there against coptic christians and other religious minorities. meanwhile, a new poll from the pew research center shows that a majority of egyptians, more than 60%, believes that laws should

strictly follow the teachings of the koran. nearly three-fourths said they have favorable views of the muslim brotherhood. a similar percentage also expressed favorable views of a progressive and mostly secular group, the april 6th movement. the survey found that less than half of the population, 36%, believes that religious freedom for minority faiths should be a priority. tibetans have elected a new prime minister of their government in exile based in dharmsala, india. the new leader is lobsang sangay, a scholar at harvard law school. he plans to move to dharmsala to assume office in mid-may. earlier this year, the dalai lama announced that he will transfer all of his political duties to the new prime minister but he will remain the spiritual leader of tibet. reverend david wilkerson,

the founding pastor of times square church in new york city, died this week in a car accident. wilkerson started his nondenominational church in 1987, when times square was notorious for prostitution and drug abuse. he was also a best-selling author and he began an anti-drug program for teens. wilkerson was 79. tens of thousands of people gathered in india this week for the funeral of popular spiritual guru sri sathya sai baba. sai baba had millions of followers and 126 spiritual centers around the world. the trust he created is estimated to be worth $8.9 billion. at some prisons in the united states, inmates are encouraged to practice yoga. today, we have a story about prison yoga in india, where yoga

began and where officials are so convinced of its value they are giving inmates, even violent offenders, reduced sentences if they enroll in yoga classes. fred de sam lazaro reports from bhopal, in central india. >> reporter: with its high walls, gates and rituals, the bhopal central jail looks forbidding, almost medieval. however, inside is a world of routine and order. it starts with the morning roll call for some 2,000 men, about a third more than the prison is supposed to hold, some of the most notorious convicts in the surrounding region. as in every prison there's a hierarchy here, a subgroup of elite inmates. but these guys have earned the distinction not for being tough, but for being calm. in the prison's main hall, some 150 men are led in the deep

breathing yoga exercises by one of their own. for much of the morning, they'll go through the whole cycle of yoga's asanas, or postures, and breathing exercises that cover the entire body. >> i feel healthy when i do yoga, and i don't have any violent thoughts. it helps me have positive thoughts. >> in the past before yoga, my mind used to wander a lot. i used to be like a bird in a cage. i used to have a lot of anger. >> reporter: both men are serving life sentences here for murder, in tomar's case multiple murders. >> i get a lot of peace of mind after doing yoga. whenever i do yoga exercises, i really feel at peace. you really want to be at peace here. >> reporter: and they have one more significant incentive. for every three months in the yoga program, their jail

sentences are reduced by 15 days. in india, even people sentenced to life can have their sentences reduced to as little as 14 years for good behavior, an evaluation largely in the hands of prison staff. >> i am hopeful. i've done my crime and i have to do my sentence. it will be up to the officers to decide if my sentence will be reduced. >> reporter: for their part, prison officials say yoga, which was introduced into this facility two years ago, has brought them peace, too. >> we used to have a lot of conflicts, but we don't see very many now. people are respectful of each other. >> reporter: jail superintendent mishra says the yoga program is being expanded across the prison system. not only does it calm the jail atmosphere, he says it may also help thin the ranks through early release of those who've completed a course in yoga. he says the prison system in this central indian state of madhya pradesh is overcrowded

and under-staffed. >> we have 120 jails and 17 doctors for about 35,000 inmates. we have 40 health workers, but that's not enough staff to look after the health of all the prisoners as is called for by the national human rights committee. we need to find a way to gradually release more of them. >> reporter: prison officials say very few inmates who go through yoga have resorted to crime after their release. so the key question is has yoga transformed these men and how? the most common definitions describe yoga as a system of exercises dating back 3,000 years, practiced as part of the hindu discipline to promote control of the body and mind. at the prison, inmates also come from muslim, christian, and other faiths. the superintendent says yoga is never presented as an extension of hinduism. the majority of inmates here are

hindu. >> anyone who breathes can do yoga. if you breathe, yoga belongs to you. >> reporter: but yoga scholars say it involves much more than breathing exercises. >> if you practice yoga, it's not just about making your body fit. it's about changing your mental state, your consciousness. the breathing exercises help increase oxygen flow to the vital organs. it stimulates the nervous system, brings sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems into balance. the whole way how you look at the work, look at other people, is transformed. >> i can control my anger now. i want to go away from crime. i want to join the mainstream of society and support my parents. >> there's no hard evidence yet of the impact of yoga on recidivism, but prison officials say with the health and management benefits, they can see no downside to a morning

yoga class. for "religion and ethics newsweekly" this is fred de sam lazro. this sunday is holocaust remembrance day, yom hashoah, and this year is the 50th anniversary of the trial, in jerusalem, of adolph eichmann, who was put to death by israel for his role in the nazi persecution of jews. deborah lipstadt teaches modern jewish history and holocaust studies at emory university in atlanta. she spoke to us about the importance of personal stories for remembering. >> the trials that took place immediately after th based primarily on documents. in the eichmann trial, gideon hausner, the attorney general, made a decision to call the victims of genocide. he called these witnesses to tell their personal stories, and they told their stories one by one by one. so people began to associate what happened during the

holocaust, the final solution, with specific people, and in that way it put a human face on genocide. the victims had spoken before, but they had never had an audience the way they had it at the eichmann trial. the world was listening. i think it was the impact of the intensity, the idea of being in a courtroom setting, that the perpetrator was sitting there in that glass booth. i think all those things together gave what the victims were saying, what the stories they were telling, an added authenticity and authority. people understood that these people weren't inherently flawed, that they weren't inherently weak, but that they were in a sea of opposition, a sea of hostility, and there was no one, no one there to help them. when you begin to hear the story from people, when it becomes personalized, when you hear it in the first person singular, "this is my story and this is what happened to me," genocide takes on a new meaning. you begin to realize that it

didn't happen to just a group of nameless people, but it happened to individuals, and what happened is their memory, and then the memory gets transmitted to the next generation. it's a lesson to the world of what happens when you stand silently by. in fact, it's more important that the rest of the world, those people who aren't associated with the victims, know about it. those who were the heirs of the victims, the next generation, you know it your gut. that's what it means to call for help and have nobody answer. i think that's the importance of memory. at the center for advanced holocaust studies of the united states holocaust memorial museum and then on june 10th as i was on my way downstairs to give a lecture to a group of people, i passed the guard station and i saw officer johns and the other

officers greeting people. no sooner had i gotten to the room, shots rang out, and it was an 88-year-old holocaust denier racist anti-semite who came to the museum, approached the door. officer johns reached out to open the door to let the man in and the man took out a rifle and shot him. it happened because this killer was motivated by hatred. was motivated by anti-semitism, was motivated by exactly those sentiments which this museum is dedicated to fighting, and it was such a terrible irony. on this yom hashoah i think it's very important for the world to remember that evil begins with a single individual talking to another individual talking to another individual. maybe they are motivated, as was the case in the holocaust, by an age-old hatred, but it takes one person with another person with another person to make it happen, and that each of us as individuals have the power to say, "stop."

we may not be able to stop the hatred, but we can say, "stop, i won't be involved in it." we also have to remember not to think of the victims only as "the six million," but they were one by one by one, and in that courtroom in jerusalem 50 years ago people heard the voices of those victims one by one by one in a way that they hadn't heard them before. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. there's much more on our website, including an excerpt from deborah lipstadt's book on the eichmann trial and more of our interviews about the path to catholic sainthood. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. you can follow us on facebook and twitter, find us on youtube, and watch us anytime, anywhere on smart phones and iphones with our mobile web app. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from that other event this week in london.

♪ major funding for "religion and ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lilly endowment, an indianapolis based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development, and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting.