The Holy Father today received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. During the audience he extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard of Bingen (1089-1179) to the universal Church, inscribing her in the catalogue of saints.
St. Hildegard was already listed as a saint in the Roman Martyrology, which is one of the official listings, so (contrary, for instance, to what Wikipedia now says) this is not a canonization in the proper sense. However, like a number of other saints in the Martyrology, she was not on the universal calendar, which gave her a somewhat ambiguous liturgical status, since she could only be liturgically commemorated when it would be appropriate to use the Roman Martyrology, or when an approved local calendar allowed it, rather than in a regular way by the whole Church with the usual Mass or Office. The Pope has changed this by extending her cultus to the universal church -- her feast is now open to liturgical commemoration everywhere (assuming, of course, it is not superceded by Sunday or some other major feast). That is, there is now a universal Feast of St. Hildegard, on September 17.
There have been rumors that the Pope plans to give Hildegard the liturgical title, "Doctor of the Church," at some point this year; and this would indeed be the first step to doing so, so there is almost certainly something to it.
