I have not taken the trouble to post anything about the canonizations today because every news site has the story. But I take the occasion to highlight Christopher
Ferrara's three-part series in THE REMNANT about 'The Canonization Crisis' that I will eventually post on the Forum for the record - because it is a remarkable well-
researched document that highlights what the canonization 'process' has become in the last few decades.
Parts I and II are here:
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/3753-the-canonization-crisis-part-1
remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/4137-the-canonization-crisis...
Part I ends by summarizing the writer's main DUBIA about the canonization process as it is today:
- Could the validity of a canonization, even if it cannot be called an error as such, be doubted if it could be shown that the investigation of the candidate has been compromised by human error, bias or mendacity?
- Would a papal act of canonization by way of recitation of the canonization formula during the canonization rite be infallible ex sese (of or from itself) even if there were no prior investigation of the candidate?
- If the papal act of canonization is infallible ex sese, is there any necessity for the investigatory process preceding canonization—developed by the Popes themselves to provide safeguards to ensure the veracity of miracles and the holiness of a candidate; and if it is necessary, why is it necessary?
- If a papal act of canonization is not infallible ex sese, then is integrity of the investigatory process preceding it not essential to the claim of infallibility, and if not, why not?
These questions can be answered definitively only by the Magisterium. And the need for that answer is urgent. The accelerating operation of the “saint factory” and the clearly expedient move to canonize every Pope since the Second Vatican Council on the basis of increasingly slim evidence, while neglecting or completely forgetting the causes of great pre-conciliar Popes renowned for their heroic virtue and plenitude of undeniable miracles — for example, the cause of Blessed Pius IX — has induced a kind of “canonization crisis” in the minds of millions of the faithful.
- Is the answer to the crisis blind faith in the infallibility of canonizations, which has never been defined as an article of faith? - Or are the faithful permitted to raise today, with greater urgency than ever before, the sorts of questions that have been presented without a definitive answer from the Magisterium since the development of the papal canonization process began?
This series should be understood as an appeal for magisterial clarity by a mere layman who, along with Catholics the world over, is struggling to understand how the infallibility of canonizations can be reconciled with a process that seems increasingly, as Prudlo so rightly observes, to be subject to abuse in order “to promote interests and movements, rather than being a recognition and approval of an extant cultus.”
With all of these concerns in view, Part II of this series will consider the problematic character of the alleged miracles attributed to Paul VI as a prime example of why it is reasonable to consider whether the integrity of the investigative process affects the integrity of a canonization, all prior attempts to solve this conundrum notwithstanding.
I a grateful to Rorate caeli for the following piece apropos today's canonizations...It expresses what I feel about how Pius XII has been sidelined unjustly and unfairly...
REMINDER: The Case for Pacelli
October 14, 2018
Rorate Note: Re-posting this from April 2014.
Vatican II, Liberation Theology and the near destruction of the liturgy and the Church were canonized today.
While we are now asked to pray to Pope St. Paul VI, we are also asked to ignore the last traditional pontificate of Pius XII, whose case for canonization has been thwarted. Yet, while Paul VI laicized so many priests and religious, and oversaw the destruction of the Roman Rite, Pope Pacelli reigned over a glorious flourishing of the Church in almost all measurable aspects. See below for some staggering statistics.
Original post:
The canonizations of Pope John XXIII and John Paul II will take place this Sunday, with many flocking to Rome to be a part of the historic event.
Without questioning the two already-mentioned canonizations, the question still remains: Why not Pacelli?
Let it not be forgotten that his cause for beatification was expressly launched by Paul VI together with that of John XXIII precisely to combat their "almost being turned into symbols or banners of opposite tendencies within Catholicism". In beatifying and canonizing one but not the other -- does this not imply something about the relative strength of these "opposite tendencies" within the Church?
Clearly, a very strong case can be made for Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (Pope Pius XII), from a standpoint of sheer numbers alone.
For those who say we are now living in the greatest age of the Church, let us consider the numbers below, just for the dioceses of the United States during the reign of Pius XII. They are remarkable, to say the least -- if the canonization of a Pope also takes into consideration the appraisal of his pontificate (other than his personal holiness and his prophetical wisdom, both of which are irreproachable regarding Pope Pacelli), then these surely deserve observation:
While all these numbers may make one yearn for the Church of old, a few of them are truly staggering for the modern mind to comprehend in today's Catholic-lite world: a 200+% increase in American converts; a nearly 250% increase in seminaries built; a 200+% increase in seminarians; and a 50% increase in priests. All of this happened over Pius XII's glorious 19-year-reign.
While we do not question the canonization of a saint, we can say, looking at these numbers, that there is a strong case to be made that the lineup on April 27 is short one great man. [Whose cause for sainthood has not advanced an iota since Benedict XVI declared him Venerable. Pius XII has a special place in my heart because he was the first of the seven popes I have lived through so far.]
Fr H's prayer - whetheror not you believe Paul VI is what a saint should be - is certainly very apropos:
Oratiuncula hodierna
(A little prayer for today)
October 14, 2018
Saint Paul VI, pray that the smoke of Satan which entered the Church may, by your intercession, be driven back. Pray that the the whole Church may hear with docile obedience the moral teachings which, handed down by your predecessors, you handed down to our generations. Pray especially for your successor Pope Francis, that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, he may devoutly, powerfully, and joyfully set forth the tradition received through the Apostles, the Deposit of Faith.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/10/2018 01:36]