Church seeks sainthood for murdered missionary

The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe has marked the death of former President Robert Mugabe by announcing that a British lay missionary could become country’s first saint. BBC News reports that the church has officially launched the cause for John Bradburne’s canonisation. The son of an English vicar, he was gunned down on the side of a road in Mutemwa in north-eastern Zimbabwe exactly 40 years ago. The tragedy occurred during the war of liberation, while he was serving at a leper colony. Since his death, several worshippers say they have been healed after praying to him, satisfying one of the conditions for sainthood in the Catholic Church.