Some reflections on Popes
and their personal holiness, etc
Of course, it is a human tendency to focus on John Paul II at this time because he is being beatified. But comments like those given by the prominent Catholics cited in the CNS stories above would give the impression that John Paul II is the only Pope in recent memory to have been recognized as holy in his lifetime, nor for that matter, the only Pope whose human virtues must be emulated.
It would be nice to for some to remind the world for a change that, of the Popes since the mid-19th century, Pius X has been canonized; Pius IX, Pius XI and John XIII have been beatified; and Pius XII, Paul VI and John Paul I are being 'processed' for beatification (it has been reported that a 'beatification miracle' is under study for both Pius XXII and John Paul I).
I feel bad about Leo XIII and Benedict XV who appear to have been left off from consideration, but I have no doubt both Popes could well be considered if their respective dioceses took the initiative.
And of course, the most obviously overlooked in all this is the present Pope himself, whose personal holiness is not questioned even by those among his worst critics who are well-informed, and who - I think no one would dispute it - is a living Doctor of the Church.
Most importantly, he is the one individual who sets the example of shining Christian witness daily and publicly to the entire world.
I am not arguing that Popes should automatically be considered for sainthood. Popes have not always been inspirational figures, as history tells us abundantly.
But the Church does appear to be blessed in the era of the modern papacy with Popes whose election may well have been the action of the Holy Spirit, each of whom was inspirational in his time.
Perhaps the Conclaves that elected each of the modern Popes were enlightened in their choice by the demands of the times when they made their choice, so that each historical period somehow got the right Pope. But certainly no one has characterized any of the modern Popes as rascals.
In fact, even the Popes who have been most anathematized by their detractors for misunderstood episodes - Pius IX with his denunciation of modern errors; Pius X who was such a champion of Tradition that the FSSPX is named after him; Pius XII with respect to the Holocaust; Paul VI and his perceived ambivalences over Vatican II, and Papa Wojtyla himself, whose record is considered by some to be 'clouded' by the shadow of the sex-abuse scandals and his friendship with Father Maciel - are
faulted for not being 'perfect', not for being unholy.
Some have argued that Popes should not be considered for sainthood at all because they enjoy an unfair advantage over 'lesser mortals'. That seems so illogical, because by definition, the spiritual leader of the Church - officially the Vicar of Christ on earth - should be more worthy than any other priest to be the Vicar of Christ, and their election would seem to be proof that their peers in the Church thought so, as well. In this light, every Pope should be a candidate for sainthood! And if the individual Pope is indeed a holy man, why should he be discriminated against?
The argument that Popes have an unfair advantage is equally fallacious - there are so few of them as to make a difference. Cardinal Amato says that the Congregation of Saints has about 3,000 causes pending. Of those, we are aware of six modern Popes.
The best argument, of course, is to cite the hundreds of humble folk - priests, religious and laymen - whom the Church has beatified and canonized in the past several decades, to limit ourselves to recent memory. The Church is not responsible for the miracles that lead to the beatification and canonization of candidate saints nor for the timing of these miracles, which for the most part, determine the fate and timing of each individual cause.
The whole Church celebrates, or should, whenever any one candidate for sainthood - whether he was a great Pope as Karol Wojtyla was, or a dying Roman teenager like Chiara Badano who inspired those around her with the luminous strength of her faith - hurdles the formal requirement for a 'certified' miracle,
because new blesseds and saints are not just examples of Christian witness as Christ wants each of us to be, but because the miracles associated with them - events that are inexplicable by science - are extraordinary signs of God that are visible and tangible to a world where many people deny the existence of God.
P.S. As I wrote this reflection when I cross-posted the JPII-beatification storeis in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, I failed to note the synchronicity of Mons. Negri's observation in the story above about Benedict XVI's visit to San Marino-Montefeltro and the Pope's example of Christian witness as an appropriate point of spiritual preparation for his visit.
Beatification no surprise - but
still, a great day for the Church
By William Oddie
Monday, 17 January 2011
Nobody is surprised by the declaration that Pope John Paul is to be beatified on May 1. It is almost a beatification by public acclaim: the cries of “Santo Subito” that went up in the streets of Rome at his funeral were a sign that his heroic virtue had become universally understood, not merely in his manner of dying, but for many years before that.
The
Catholic Herald and the Catholic Truth Society, to mark the 25th anniversary of his papacy in 2003, had jointly published a collection of essays (which I edited) under the title
John Paul the Great.
When I read on Friday that his beatification had been announced, I reread what I had written then. I quote here the last paragraph of my introduction, simply as one contemporary example of what had by then become the general perception.
The Pope’s poor health had led to calls for his resignation; how could someone suffering so much be expected to lead the Church? That was the question. But it was precisely his courage in the face of suffering which was so inspiring, which gave his leadership of the Church such huge spiritual power. This is what I wrote; and I think it is an accurate indication of what nearly everyone had come to understand:
Be not afraid: it has become almost the watchword for his papacy: not because he has obsessively repeated it for others to follow, but because he has lived it out himself.
He is in constant pain; his hands shake with Parkinson’s disease; and still he does not spare himself. The older and more frail he becomes, the more his courage shines out, and the nearer his papal service comes to being a kind of living martyrdom.
The word “indomitable” springs to mind; and for an Englishman of my generation that will tend to be followed by the word “Churchillian”: for surely in the spiritual warfare of our age this is one of the great heroes of the faith, not merely a great warrior himself, but an inspirer in others of the great knightly virtues of honour and courage and constancy and persistence to the end.
In due course, it will be for the Church to declare if this has been the life of one of her saints: but certainly, by any human measure, his qualities have amounted to greatness of the highest order: it is surely very hard to believe that that will not be the verdict of history, too.
Pope Benedict has constantly referred to his greatness: he called him “the great Pope John Paul II” in his first address from the loggia of St Peter’s Church; he referred to him as “the Great” in his homily for the Mass of Repose, and has continued to refer to him in this way.
This has also been a growing custom among the faithful; in the US, the names of the John Paul the Great Catholic University and other educational establishments have reflected it.
But greatness is not necessarily holiness: here, though, they are inseparable. And now the Church has, indeed, declared herself. On May 1, the first stage towards his eventual canonisation will take place.
It is clear that the present Pope, who knew him so well, has given his cause a fair wind: but he has done no more than make possible what is very close to being a
consensus fidelium.
In fact, he has done more! Judging from the reaction of some Catholics, Benedict XVI was in a no-win, damned-whatevere-you-do situation with respect to the beatification.
Some fault him for 'expediting and facilitating' his predecessor's cause, playing favorites, as it were. They think a more 'normal' time interval should have been observed, or that, like Pius XII's cause has been considerably held up because of a disute over his 'silence' on the Holocaust, so too should John Paul II's cause have been kept on hold, until questions about his knowledge of the sex-qabuse scandal and his friendship with Fr. Maciel are cleared up. (Again, given human nature which tends to suspect the worst instead of believing the best, such 'doubts' will never be cleared up to everyone's satisfaction, so inaction on account of doubts like this is never an advisable course. That is why a miracle or two is a sine qua non for sainthood - miracles do not depend on human activity or reason but entirely on divine manifestation.]
On the other hand, if Benedict XVI had treated the Wojtyla cause as just another cause that was in no way exceptional, in order to 'observe the proprieties' as the politically correct would have liked him to do, he would have interposed himself unnecessarily and unwisely against a widespread consensus fidelium such as Oddie decribes in his essay.
And Papa Wojtyla's cause was doubtless exceptional for all the reasons Oddie cites. A cause that deserved, at the very least, the same deference John Paul himself ahd shown when he expedited the cause for Mother Teresa.
With that formal precedent, and with the staggering evidence of the consensus fidelium in the magnitude and degree of the universal mourning that followed his predecessor's death, Benedict XVI would have been obliged to do what he did, even without the demands of 'Santo subito!', and by his own personal sense of what is right and what needs to be done.
Let us pray to John Paul II that, along with the other Popes in heaven, he may continue to watch over Benedict XVI and the Church, and intercede for God's grace and blessings in their behalf.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/01/2011 22:22]