Divine Mercy and the Canonizations

April 27, 2014 by Daniel Nichols

I really cannot say anything better about the canonizations, on the Feast of Divine Mercy, than what John Allen says here:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/04/26/francis-accents-unity-with-halos-for-superstar-popes/5lXcn1xcWkg5wDkKM9iIgL/story.html

Icon by Fabio Nones.

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

18 Responses

on April 27, 2014 at 11:21 am | Reply Ted Seeber

““Most progressive Catholics idealized Pope John but had reservations about John Paul, while conservative Catholics felt the opposite,” said Jesuit priest Thomas Reese, a National Catholic Reporter columnist. “Pope Francis is trying to bring both groups together.””.

I’ll be impressed if Thomas Reese, the folks at National Catholic Reporter, and other Jesuits head that call. Right now, they seem to be running as fast as they can away from being brought together with conservatives.
on April 27, 2014 at 11:32 am | Reply Ted Seeber

An interesting point came a bit later that the church needs to canonize more lay women. We all believe our mothers to be sainted, surely a great pro-life move for Francis would be to find a few whose children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren remember them and pray to them for miracles; what a great thing it would be to canonize a few women specifically for motherhood.
- on April 27, 2014 at 1:50 pm | Reply emmasrandomthoughts
  
  I have mixed feelings about this because it shows how starkly different our understanding of what a saint is from previous generations.
  - on April 28, 2014 at 9:51 am Theodore Seeber
    
    Our understanding of what a saint is, has been in flux for 2000 years. Do you have a previous generation in specific you were thinking of?
  - on April 28, 2014 at 6:04 pm emmasrandomthoughts
    
    I’m thinking of the fact that saints used to have to exercise heroic virtue. This has changed drastically in the last century, where Fr. Martin writes that “becoming a saint means becoming the person that God wants you to be.” That interpretation of a saint draws on Maslow’s idea of self-actualization.
    
    If we start canonizing mothers left and right, we are abandoning the idea of heroic virtue. The heroic aspect of saints, while taking different forms, has been with us from the beginning. In the days of the Romans, we venerated martyrs who endured gruesome punishments. In the early middle ages, we venerated desert hermits who practiced severe forms of penance. In the middle ages, we revered men who embraced absolute poverty or monastic life. In the Counter-Reformation, we canonized people who reformed and founded religious orders. In the early 20th century, people flocked to see Padre Pio’s stigmata and hear stories of his strange and rare charisms. The one thing they all had in common was going well above and beyond the average Catholic by exercising virtue and holiness that was truly heroic. The saint no more resembled the common Catholic than Achilles represented the common Athenian.
    
    If we start canonizing mothers simply for raising their children, we are giving up on the idea of heroic virtue in favor of patting ourselves on the back and telling ourselves how wonderful we are. Saints should make us feel small, not puff us up.
  - on April 28, 2014 at 7:04 pm AnonymousBadCatholic
    
    Either that, or we are implying that parenting children is on par with having our eyes gouged out, our noses cut off, or our bodies roasted over an open flame.
    
    Not that there haven’t been a few days that felt this way in my mothering experience, but I don’t think that is the picture of motherhood/fatherhood that we really want to paint for the general public, who are already pretty gunshy about having children in the first place.
    
    That would send them running in to refill their pill prescriptions and schedule their vasectomies in a hurry.
  - on April 28, 2014 at 7:13 pm emmasrandomthoughts
    
    “Either that, or we are implying that parenting children is on par with having our eyes gouged out, our noses cut off, or our bodies roasted over an open flame.”
    
    I didn’t even think of that, but you’re absolutely right! “Toilet training is the equivalent of being flayed alive!”
    
    Yet another reason to pause before radically jettisoning the traditional understanding of saints in favor of Maslow’s self-actualization.
- on April 27, 2014 at 7:55 pm | Reply Mutti Shark
  
  For Pete’s sake, does everything about women have to be tied somehow to abortion?
  - on April 28, 2014 at 9:49 am Theodore Seeber
    
    Only since 1973, when the American government jumped the shark on the issue and *everything public* about women became about abortion. The entire feminist movement has become tainted by it.
  - on April 28, 2014 at 8:26 pm Mutti Shark
    
    Theodore, why should what American politicians have done since 1973 have ANY influence over how the Church (a) views women or (b) discerns *saints*? Again, for Pete’s sake, this tunnel vision is tiresome and, I would argue, ultimately destructive.
  - on April 29, 2014 at 10:55 am Theodore Seeber
    
    Because Truth is Truth and lies need to be countered with Truth. If you let the lie stand without bringing up truth, yes, it will ultimately be destructive. When the Orthodox ceases to be mandatory, the orthodox will soon be the persecuted position.
- on April 28, 2014 at 4:44 pm | Reply AnonymousBadCatholic
  
  Yes, as great as it would be to canonize a few men specifically for fatherhood.
  
  Good luck finding the funding for it, though. Canonizations are costly affairs, and your average unknown Catholic on the street simply doesn’t have that kind of cash or influence lying around.
  
  .
  - on April 29, 2014 at 10:57 am Theodore Seeber
    
    That is most certainly why it won’t happen very often. It is also why, as Daniel states below, Bishops and Kings are more represented than paupers, and I’d also add the number one way to become a saint is to found a religious order.
on April 28, 2014 at 12:52 pm | Reply annahatke

Um wasn’t the last saint canonized Kateri Tekawitha? woman? Native American? lay?
on April 28, 2014 at 7:06 pm | Reply Daniel Nichols

That’s true, Anna, and the Church seems to be trying harder to recognize the holiness of lay people (and I will be surprised if Francis does not up that ante, perhaps dramatically). But historically bishops and theologians have been canonized more often than parish priests or housewives or farmers or fishermen (aside from those first apostolic fishers), abbots more than lay brothers, kings more than shoemakers. This, though the evidence that holiness is more common among the rulers and leaders is pretty scarce, and indeed is counterintuitive. The Church is human and divine, and I think the human part is the greater by far. To me the canonization of assholes, like I said, is a great sign of hope for all of us. If even Constantine and Demetrius and Vladimir (‘saints’ who are not particularly inspiring to this Byzantine Catholic) are in heaven, I am assured that almost all of us will be as well.

Oh, and I think God has a lot lower bar for ‘heroic virtue’ than we do, especially in this age.
- on April 28, 2014 at 7:11 pm | Reply AnonymousBadCatholic
  
  Are there any asshole women we know of who were canonized? They’d probably be known more as bitch saints than asshole saints. I’m trying to think of who might qualify as a truly ass-holey woman canonized saint, but none are immediately coming to mind.
  
  We need some bitchy female saints for inspiration and hope, too. Who are they?
- on April 29, 2014 at 10:51 am | Reply Theodore Seeber
  
  When I was younger, I spent a year doing a study of the biographies of the Saint of the Day. The #1 way to become a saint was to found a religious order that could champion your canonization after your death. All of your other high ranking categories are similar.
  
  I for one am pleased that the Church is making an effort.
on April 28, 2014 at 7:19 pm | Reply Daniel Nichols

I kind of doubt you will find bitch saints; saints are canonized by men, and men generally are going to shy away from bitches, even though strong and even headstrong women (like Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, etc) will make the cut.