No track to sainthood

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/07/09/no-track-to-sainthood/

By Herb Silverman, Published: July 9, 2013 at 10:20 am
Herb Silverman is founder and President Emeritus of the Secular Coalition for America, author of “Candidate Without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt,” and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the College of Charleston.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Catholic Church. That’s why I feel less comfortable criticizing Catholicism than Orthodox Judaism, the religion in which I was raised. Occasionally, though, I just can’t help myself. In my defense, some of my best friends are Catholics (actually just one—a guy named Tony). But many of my best friends are ex-Catholics, including my wife.

Which brings me to sainthood. Because I prefer behavior to belief and life to death, I recently criticized Catholic doctrines that make martyrdom an easier path to sainthood than good works. But part of me wishes Congress were as willing to craft political compromises as Pope Francis, who approved making Popes John Paul II and John XXIII simultaneous saints. The first is a conservative and the second a liberal. (I’m grading on a curve here because “liberal pope” seems like an oxymoron.)

Pope Francis has been so anxious to elevate both that he put John Paul II on the fast track to sainthood and waved a second miracle for John XXIII. As I understand sainthood, you must first be dead and in heaven. You must then perform miracles, usually by answering a live person’s prayer for assistance in a desperate situation. “Proof” of such miracles is frequently a medical cure that the Vatican has found to be instantaneous and without scientific explanation. Prayers to win the lottery don’t count, despite overcoming greater odds, one would think, than inexplicable medical cures. If there were a god, she would probably have a good chuckle over the chutzpah of one man (the pope) declaring someone to be in heaven.

It would make more sense to me if sainthood were simply a lifetime achievement award for good works, reserved for those whose character others are invited to emulate. But good works are downgraded when miracles play a key role.

more at link

[brooklynite]

1. Since Saints are a made up concept, let the Catholic Church can use whatever criteria they want...

[trotsky]

2. A cynic might say that it's just a marketing ploy...

to drum up interest in a stale old product.

[edhopper]

3. The whole concept of sainthood is inane and foolish

someone dies and goes to heaven, he/she is a saint, but God doesn't let people know this. Instead he/she isn't elevated to sainthood, which lets people send prays to God through him/her, unless the Church officially does some research and "discovers" the person is a saint.

Sometimes it takes hundreds of years, sometimes it's when the body is barely cold. And sometimes the person doesn't exist at all.

Just a silly side show for religion that purports to be the one true Church of God.

More a call back to the ancient days of the Pantheon, than something a serious religion should be involved in.

[rug]

4. Herb exhibits an abysmal understanding of the process.