John Paul II: A worthy saint?

The Catholic Church will soon have two new saints, said Nicole Winfield in the Associated Press. Pope Francis last week fast-tracked the sainthood of two recent popes—John Paul II, who died in 2005, and John XXIII, who led the church in the early 1960s. Francis declared that John Paul had performed the two miracles needed for canonization, with the healing of two very sick women who prayed to him. And in a “remarkable show of papal authority,” Francis also ruled that John XXIII could be declared a saint even though he had only one healing miracle to his name. Francis is proving himself to be “a brilliant politician,” said E.J. Dionne Jr. in The Washington Post. By simultaneously canonizing John Paul II, a conservative who fiercely defended the church’s traditional moral values, and John XXIII, a champion of social justice who liberalized many church traditions, Francis has honored both wings of a divided church. That’s “a good formula for harmony, something Catholicism needs right now.”

How can the church possibly canonize John Paul II? said Andrew Sullivan in Dish.AndrewSullivan.com. Yes, he was a charismatic leader, but he also “presided over the worst scandal in the church since the Reformation”—the child sex-abuse scandal. John Paul II was in charge when the Vatican chose to protect priests, and the church’s assets, rather than thousands of raped children. In the past, the church waited decades or even centuries before naming someone a saint, said Herb Silverman in WashingtonPost.com. That gave time for history to judge a candidate’s full legacy. And with evidence still coming in about John Paul’s actions during the sex-abuse scandal, why rush? “Sainthood is for an eternity, so a few more years shouldn’t make much difference.”

The canonization of these two popes points to a bigger problem with sainthood, said Leslie Scrivener in the Toronto Star. “Proving” a miracle can be a lengthy process that only a diocese or religious order can afford. That’s why the catalog of saints is packed with popes and other church officials, while ordinary Catholics who live extraordinarily holy lives—with heroic dedication to others or to prayer and virtue—are often excluded from the club. “It costs money to have someone canonized. You have to collect information,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University. “And nobody’s going to do that for your mom.”

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