Just seen the motu proprio about the new criteria for a certain category of martyrs, those who give their lives for others. Maybe I am hyper-critical, or get a little to anxious about anything coming from Rome where ambiguity seems deliberately written into documents and where 2+2 can actually equal 5. I get anxious about anything that distracts us from Christ. On a quick reading it seems that it could be possible to be beatified for a love of humanity rather than for love of Jesus Christ.
Do feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
I suppose I have a certain growing concern about the canonisation/beatification of so many, once for Christians in both East and West a person's sanctity was judged on their ability to intercede and work miracles, their post-mortem activity was often much more important than their lives. St Thomas Becket, for example, was raised to the altar not so much for his legal disputes with the King but for the stream of healing miracles after his death.
There is a danger too in the beatification or canonisation of an ideology or a faction rather than a truly holy person who is now in Heaven and enjoying the Beatific vision, interceding for the Church and its members. It would regrettable if canonisation/beatification became a posthumous ecclesiastical decoration for merely the great and the good.
A Coptic Orthodox friend says their criteria for canonisation is the need to be dead for 70 years and for numerous miracles or supernatural occurrences at their intercession or at the place of their burial.
Simply, I get worried about the removal of the clearly supernatural elements in our faith.
13 comments:
Agree Father. Bill Gates "loves humanity" too. Just look the money he donates to stop the unwashed masses from breeding.
I thought Becket was canonized because he was considered a martyr?
Worrying development indeed.Vagueness in the zeitgeist I fear.
Alan
Indeed, Terry, but his popularity and cultus throughout Europe was because praying to him 'worked'.
A miracle is still required in the new category before beatification ... do not overly radical a move perhaps...
The pace of change driven from Rome accelerates.
Time for the Eighth Ecumenical Council, one of whose tasks would be to approve or otherwise all the dogmas which have been declared without the agreement of the Orthodox.
Be on lookout for fake miracles.
Your Coptic Orthodox friend is largely correct, the exception proving the rule!
I have been wondering if canonisation is becoming a pc thing: gotta have more women, gotta have more lay people.
I don't know why St Teresa Benedicta was canonised; as far as I am aware was killed because she was a Jewess not for her Catholic faith.
Victoria: I think she was killed as a Jewess who had converted to Catholicism and in retaliation for the statement made by the Catholic Bishops. Thus she died because she was a Catholic.
Much as I liked JPII, his canonisation was very hasty. And don't get me started about the beatification of Paul VI. It won't be long before popes start canonising themselves.
Nicolas is correct. Please go over to Ryan Grant's blog and read the comment below the interview I did with him in 2015. I'm explaining why she died in odium fidei based on eyewitness accounts.
https://athanasiuscm.org/2015/11/16/interview-024-constantine-molitor-on-the-persecution-of-the-church-in-germany-under-the-third-reich/
I agree with your concerns of things coming from the Vatican in light of so much politicizing and ambiguity of the faith that we're getting from them.
In the early years of this pontificate, it did make me wonder why there were new rules to streamline canonizations. It did seem that declaring one venerable to sainthood was reduced the time it takes to investigate a life and verify miracles to one of giving a medal of honor rather than a Catholic declaration and assurance of true sainthood. The miracle part seems to be played down.
It reminds me of Medjugorje, where so many spoken words are hailed as pointing to a real place of Marian visitations, when there is an obvious lack of miracles.
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