Stop Saint-making Please! Please!!
Proof of God’s Unlimited Mercy?
dr. james kottoor
Wrote a certain Tyler in the internet a few days ago: “But I doubt neither John Paul II’s celibacy nor his sanctity. I really don't care about his celibacy because it's always been optional. If he messed up it's really a non-issue. I really do doubt his sanctity. He had too many faux pas to be a saint in the sense the RC church uses it – a person to model one's life after. Unless being a saint now means turning a blind eye to criminal activities.
“As I've said before and will say again and again, the lesson JPII, the sainted one, the patron saint for the Pontifical Protection of clerical Pedophiles has for me is that if he can make it to Heaven with his heavy baggage then the average Jane and Joe should have little difficulty crossing the threshold of the Pearly Gates once they finish taking their last breath. Fear not neither Hell nor Purgatory can separate us from the Love of God our Father (Abba) – JPII is proof positive of His Mercy.”
After all in Saint Paul’s time all were saints. He called them so: “Saints in Corinth, Ephesus etc.” He says: "So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God's household" Eph.2.19. Then what is present purpose of Saint making, except creating a new Vatican office for jobless clerics and finding cooked-up reasons for asking parties who want to sit gleefully in the pigeon holes of saints on the altar, to shell in some of their locked up, unused cash? Money like manure should not be kept locked up, it should be spread to make it productive. What then are the pros and cons of today’s saint-making thamasa en-mass?
So can all the Cock and Bull stories about heaven, hell or purgatory, prevent us from the loving embrace of a loving prodigal Father who does not know how not to forgive even the worst criminal on earth? Bad company and tempting examples on earth make some people bad. They ought to improve and become better in the saintly, conducive surroundings in heaven! So don’t worry, we shall all overcome all! Thank you saint John Paul II. If you find, dear readers, any problem with this kind of plain rational thinking, please don’t hesitate to write back.
The Church has many fake saints. Who cares? Sometimes, the Church harassed them during their life time, but declared them saints after their death. Sometimes, the title saint is also withdrawn after few years. All commercial activities.
The popularity of Pope Francis is not to be questioned. But certain actions of his go against the general trend of his open thinking and siding with the common man. One of them is the craze for making new official saints, the other is the kind of stuff he propagates with such tricks as urging the faithful to collect indulgences by going through portals of certain churches. It smells of what a courageous man called Luther had to fight against, and thereby split the church in two. And that is counted as one of the best blessings of God to modern Christianity.
If I were in Pope Francis' boots, I would have abolished the official title of Sainthood bestowed on anyone from the beginning of time. The principle being it would be the ancient practice in the Church – we are all saints by being for Christ, or none of us are. So the question is simply, if we are for Christ or not. And if we ask this question to the present active Christians they would all say, they are not for Christ, including the official Eminences and Beati. (plural of Beatus). Even if they themselves don't confess it, the onlookers know very well that they live and act against Christ. So by creating new saints, the Pope is bluffing all those who bluff themselves.
Jesus himself urged people to get into direct relationsship with God. He despised mediators, however holy they be. By naming some of the members of the community saints, the church is, in the first place, setting them as examples for the still living and in the second place supplying them mediators – those who are supposed to plead for others. Both these are irrelevant. Each one is unique and in his relatiion with God each one is to act as is given to him, and not imitate another. Secondly, as already said, it is against the will and the teachings of Jesus to make use of mediators between oneself and God. In short, the church is defeating itself, by increasing the number of already existing 'saints' be they genuine or fake like JP II!