EU founding father Robert Schuman moves a step closer to sainthood

Pope Francis gives venerable' status to post-war French statesman and supporter of European unity

Robert Schuman, a French statesman who was an early advocate for the bloc that evolved into the European Union, has moved ahead on the Catholic church's path toward possible sainthood.

The Vatican said Pope Francis on Saturday approved a decree declaring the heroic virtues'' of Schuman, a former prime minister and finance minister after the second world war. In 1950, as foreign minister, he developed a plan to promote European economic unity in hopes of furthering peace.