Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Too bad we can’t un-canonize a few of the more recently presented ones, not just popes. The process needs to be fixed, as it’s far too loose.
True Frank. We also need real miracles and not inexplicable remissions of health conditions, which occur on a fairly regular basis. When God wants to show that someone is a Saint, He is not chary with miracles to demonstrate the fact.
I agree. Canonization of the Popes has reached an absurd level, but I am also of the (unpopular) opinion that there has been a lessening of the requirements and less care on the speediness of Sainthood.
For instance, I believe someone like Carlo Acutis is being bullrushed on us. I’m not worried about pushback here – no one here will give me crap better about this than my own wife 🤣
I agree with your sentiment on this ten million times. There is no way that it should become a normal thing that a Pope gets canonized, I saw no reason for Pope John XXIII or Pope Paul to be elevated as they were. That is not to say they were not fine, holy men of faith, but being a saint is a whole other thing. I just got an “icky” feeling about the process on those two, it seemed there was a political agenda behind them that wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Benedict’s holiness is clear to all, but let’s have the normal process be reinstated, and let the fifty years pass before anything starts happening.
I hear you, Josh. They’ve been holding up Bishop Sheen’s canonization for years on procedural grounds, but a kid who liked computers or something along those lines gets shoved to the front of the line?
Nonsense.
We asked the intercession of Bl Carlo when my teenage daughter suffered a cardiac arrest a few years ago. She walked out of the hospital after 9 days and was cleared for soccer in 5 months. In this house we’re excited about his canonization.
Agree with all.
But do understand the reasons to have a saint for an order, or for an area or a church or country. It brings visitors and money to the shrines. Our mission has a Mexican saint shrine and a shrine for a European Blessed. Several times in the last two years the priest has organized an evening social with a quartet, the Blessed’s family grandchildren and the US leader for the cause who lectures on the Blessed’s life. Followed by dessert and bubbly. Plus envelopes for a donation or a pledge.
I agree with Matthew. Fr. Z pointed out in his blog years ago, during JPII and Benedict, that the picture of Paul VI hung on the wall of many an office in the Vatican.
Sidebar…I find it interesting that the chief architect of the Novus Ordo Mass, Cardinal Anibale Bugnini, has not been named a Servant of God. With all the “richness” blather one hears from Roche and numerous bishops, why not? The “richness” was so appreciated by Paul VI that he sent Bugnini to Teheran.
I disagree in part about canonizing popes–or anyone else. I well understand the critique about being…loose. On the other hand, for all I prefer that saints be vigorously screened, ..I must temper this thought, it can be viewed as …rigidity. I needed to read Weigel’s biography of John Paul II before I understood his papacy. Benedict made much more sense to me. We needed John Paul II for a long time to better understand the grandeur of faith in everyday life. ..We next needed Benedict to remind us that this grandeur still has rules and coherent thought.
I think rejecting Benedict as candidate to canonize because we’re tired of sloppy process, …won’t improve the process. Mostly it’ll provide excuse to ignore Benedict and everything he did or said. “Progressives” will be only too happy to oblige. I agree, it’s a slipshod cause to keep canonizing people. We men, human beings, have a bad habit of having need for good example to be constantly provided. Our bishops and priests too often don’t wish to preach much about doctrines of Truth. Canonizing people has become the only “preaching” people will hear.