Jud:
"He used poison-gas? - Go ahead - Make him a saint!"
"She was anti-Semitic? - Go ahead - make he a saint!"
Yes, we all know that Heidegger was involved in the use of poisopn gas in WW1
- but it didn't lead to his beatification. For some it did though.
When it comes to creating new saints, Pope John Paul II has outperformed all
his predecessors combined. And he has nearly 2000 years worth of
predecessors! But it seems that in going for quantity, the Pope has had to lower the
standards for quality.
Last Sunday, Oct. 3, the Pope beatified five more Roman Catholics, including
a poison-gas-wielding emperor and an anti-Semitic nun whose writings
inspired Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
The Pope has now beatified 1342 blesseds and canonized 482 saints. Both
figures surpass the output of blesseds and saints for all previous popes combined
(that's 263 popes according to the Vatican's reckoning).
For those unfamiliar with the process of being recognized as a saint, allow
me to explain. Beatification is the penultimate step on the path to full
sainthood. A candidate can be beatified only if the Vatican accepts "proof" that
they performed a miracle. (To make things a little easier, the miracle can be
performed posthumously. If a nun believes that praying to a dead Catholic
healed her incurable hemorrhoids, that could qualify the deceased for
beatification.) A second miracle is necessary for canonization as an official saint.
Anne Catherine Emmerich, a 19th Century German nun whose visions of Christ's
crucifixion inspired Mel Gibson, has been criticized as anti-Semitic. Her
visions included Jews tormenting Christ at the crucifixion.
German anti-Semitism led to worse atrocities than Mel Gibson movies, but the
Pope justified Emmerich's beatification on the grounds that she had seen
"the bitter suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ and experienced it on her body."
The nun was alleged to have manifested stigmata -- wounds to hands and feet
matching those of the crucified Christ.
The beatification of Emperor Karl I has also sparked outrage. Karl I ruled
the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1916 and its defeat in 1918. According to
the Vatican, the last Hapsburg emperor is on the path to sainthood because he
performed the miracle of curing a Brazilian nun of varicose veins. (I am not
making this stuff up!) Others have criticized the beatification on the
grounds that Karl I authorized the use of poison gas by his army in World War I.
"I hope Emperor Karl will serve as an example, especially for those with
political responsibilities in Europe today," Pope John Paul II said. The last
leader to follow Karl's example in using poison gas was Saddam Hussein.
Perhaps a more appropriate comment would have been the post-WWI Christmas
poem written by the humanist novelist Thomas Hardy:
"Peace upon earth!" was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We've got as far as poison gas.
--Commentary by Matt Cherry
>From The Humanist List.
Regards,
Jud
Personal Website:
_http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm_
(http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm)
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