Mother Terisa gets there at last

[Thor 2]

So Mother Teresa finally gets there after lots of hurdles. I bet Christopher Hitchens is rolling in his grave.

The Catholic Church has tightened up its rules so canonization is not so easy anymore. Just a well I suppose because so many saints have been made over the years Heaven must be getting crowded with them.

For those that don't know there are two main requirements for getting the nod and becoming a saint:

1.The candidate needs to be a martyr or have demonstrated a life of "heroic virtue" — attributes like faith, hope, love, courage, etc.
2. Following the death of the candidate, miracles must be attributed to them — an example would be someone being healed after praying to the candidate, or having a vision of them, or using prayer beads that had belonged to them.

Interesting that Pope John Paul, who had a flair for creating saints and set records in creating them, wanted to dispense with the miracle condition as it was hard to find them. Miracles are not so common these days, not like in the past when flying monks were almost commonplace.

 

[Hokulele]

It's certainly amazing that with the incredible advances in the development of tools for gathering detailed documentation, fewer miracles are confirmed.

 

[The Big Dog]

Yes, very exciting day tomorrow for lots of people.

 

[fuelair]

People who know of certain of her verified bad things will not be surprised. Nor will they be amused. But I suspect that could be said of a number of their saints.

 

[lionking]

She will merely join a long line of other charlatans and criminals who have been canonised.

 

[ddt]

She will merely join a long line of other charlatans and criminals who have been canonised.

I'd go one step further. For the majority of the alleged saints, there is insufficient evidence they actually existed.

 

[Thor 2]

I'd go one step further. For the majority of the alleged saints, there is insufficient evidence they actually existed.

Minor detail. Same could be said about Jebus himself.

 

[ddt]

So Mother Teresa finally gets there after lots of hurdles. I bet Christopher Hitchens is rolling in his grave.

The Catholic Church has tightened up its rules so canonization is not so easy anymore.

Did they? As you note, JP2 nearly did away with the miracle requirement and he also abolished the office of Devil's advocate. Though he was just good sport enough to let Hitch argue against the beatification of the thieving Albanian dwarf.

Just a well I suppose because so many saints have been made over the years Heaven must be getting crowded with them.

It's also unfair for all those saints who don't get their day on the calendar.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I'd go one step further. For the majority of the alleged saints, there is insufficient evidence they actually existed.

To make it to sainthood without having even existed is truly miraculous, and thus makes them extra-worthy additions to the panoply of saints. In fact, the nonexistent-but-sainted are considerably better saints than the other kind. Any idiot can die for your sins, but only the very special can refrain from having existed for them.

 

[Thor 2]

She will merely join a long line of other charlatans and criminals who have been canonised.

So it seems. Extract from the ABC news:

"As time went on, the Church saw the need to tighten the canonisation process. Unfortunately, sometimes figures of legends were honoured as saints. Or once, the local church in Sweden canonised an imbibing monk who was killed in a drunken brawl, hardly evidence of martyrdom."

Interesting, so it would seem churches could do their own thing in the past, canonizing to their hearts content. No wonder their are so many.

So let us ponder on this. What if a future Pontiff decides to de-canonize a heap of these dubious saints from the past? Whatever he looses on earth earth shall be loosed in heaven right? What will happen to all those saints living the good life afterlife in Heaven?

 

[TheGoldcountry]

Yes, very exciting day tomorrow for lots of people.

Yeah! BBQs and beer! (Did you mean something else?)

 

[Craig4]

The RCC is such a vile institution.

 

[Norman Alexander]

You know, I live for the day when I'm canonised as a Catholic saint. It's the be-all and end-all of my life's ambitions.

Oh wait.

No, I'm wrong. Catholic canonisation is a pointless and pathetic "award" made by a bunch of rich celibate nincompoops in frocks to a bunch of long-dead people whom no-one remembers anything about accurately.

I doubt Christopher Hitchens is rotating at all. Probably quietly smirking at the utter pointlessness of it all.

 

[Filippo Lippi]

It's almost as if the Catholic Church believe stuff in spite of the evidence

 

[Aepervius]

I read the piece on cnn where he was mentioning critics but quasi none of the reason of the critics. Fancy that.

 

[thaiboxerken]

At least she's dead and can't enjoy it.

 

[Bikewer]

NPR's Morning Edition had a surprisingly uncritical article on the canonization last week. They mentioned that an "atheist" physician had been asked to look into the spontaneous cure of a patient with leukemia who had prayed to Theresa.
The physician said she could find "no medical reason" for the remission.

I sent 'em an e-mail, wondering what sort of controls might have been done. Like, how many patients with similar diseases had prayed to Mother Theresa...And died anyway?
Or, had the nice lady been under conventional medical treatment, and the ratio of success for such treatment?
Or, the percentage of spontaneous remissions that have been known to occur, prayer or not?

They also had a Jesuit fellow explaining how these saints have the "ear of God" and can intercede for the person doing the praying.
One wonders why God, being omniscient and omnipotent and all, needs a middleman?

 

[ddt]

Yeah! BBQs and beer! (Did you mean something else?)

But go easy on the petrol you pour on the BBQ before you light it. Just look at St. Lawrence what happens when you overdo that!

 

[ddt]

They also had a Jesuit fellow explaining how these saints have the "ear of God" and can intercede for the person doing the praying.
One wonders why God, being omniscient and omnipotent and all, needs a middleman?

That's what the protestants thought too when they translated the Bible into the vernacular, ditched the Pope and smashed all the saints' statues.

 

[Alderbank]

You know, I live for the day when I'm canonised as a Catholic saint. It's the be-all and end-all of my life's ambitions.

Oh wait.

No, I'm wrong. Catholic canonisation is a pointless and pathetic "award" made by a bunch of rich celibate nincompoops in frocks to a bunch of long-dead people whom no-one remembers anything about accurately.

I doubt Christopher Hitchens is rotating at all. Probably quietly smirking at the utter pointlessness of it all.

Are you sure about the celibacy?