Roman Catholic Church lowers its standards

[-Jrabbit]

Hard to believe there's no thread on this breaking RCC news: Pope Francis has declared Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II to be saints.

John Paul II has been dead less than ten years; what's the rush? And how did he get to the front of the line? Also, I want details of the miracles these men performed. We should have pretty good documentation in this day and age, yet the church seems notably silent on the topic.

I know that John Paul II began to "simplify the process" for sainthood by, among other things, eliminating the position of Promoter of the Faith (promotor fidei), commonly called the Devil's Advocate. And wiki tells me that canonization rates have increased since then. How convenient for him.

So how about it: Have standards been lowered? And as a consequence, are the "not quite so saintly" sneaking in?

[Sava]

I'm trolling commenters on news stories with this one

I would've started a thread, but I think the OT is sick of me.

As an outsider, I think the RCC should focus on stopping child rape before proclaiming how great their leaders were. And also, it would help if they started actually teaching Christianity instead of functioning as a political special interest group.

[Felch]

Considering that there were essentially no standards for centuries, this is hardly unprecedented.

[regexcellent]

Also Pope JP II was pretty awesome.

[Hauldren Collider]

If you think about sainthood as kind of like getting knighted by the queen of england only cooler, this makes perfect sense. Who cares?

[Al B. Sure!]

There are deeper religious implications of sainthood to the faithful.

[Hauldren Collider]

Yeah but JRabbit isn't one of them so why the **** is he *****ing about it? I hear a lot of whining about the Roman Catholic Church that just ****ing misses the point. Why on earth does he care?

[Sava]

well what the **** else are we going to argue about?

[Al B. Sure!]

Yeah but JRabbit isn't one of them so why the **** is he *****ing about it? I hear a lot of whining about the Roman Catholic Church that just ****ing misses the point. Why on earth does he care?

Why did my NFL Playoff Pick 'Em thread turn into a 289 post behemoth two months after the Super Bowl with discussion of pedophilia, incest, and gay rights?

We all know the answer to both questions.

[regexcellent]

Why did my NFL Playoff Pick 'Em thread turn into a 289 post behemoth two months after the Super Bowl with discussion of pedophilia, incest, and gay rights?

[-Jrabbit]

FYI, HC, I was raised Catholic. Also, I object to your characterization of the OP as b1tching, and to your suggestion that I care. I was just surprised that Ben hadn't started a thread on how awesome these saints and/or future saint Pope Francis are, so I thought I'd lend a hand.

[Felch]

Let's just remember that St. George's claim to fame was killing a dragon. Sainthood hasn't always been subject to the rigor you seem to expect.

[Elok]

Let's just remember that St. George's claim to fame was killing a dragon. Sainthood hasn't always been subject to the rigor you seem to expect.

No, St. George's claim was being a Roman martyr. The dragon stuff came after. But in many ways, sainthood has always been kind of sloppy. A lot of early "martyrs" were almost certainly just made-up inspirational stories. And when it comes to people like the emperor Constantine, the canonization really was equivalent to a knighthood. As far as I can tell, that dude mostly worshiped himself. Ditto for (much more recently, in the East) all the Romanovs except Elizabeth. The RCC's count-the-miracles-and-divide-by-the-sins approach is somewhat exceptional.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I have a strong suspicion that Pope John Paul II getting "fast tracked" was done so he could put in on the same day as Pope John XXIII, so Pope Francis wouldn't here even more *****ing from traditionalists that he was being all progressive and then canonizing a progressive pope. He could put their beloved JPII in as well avoiding that sort of thing - and it seemed that he has (aside from a few quarters).

[Sava]

so Pope Francis wouldn't here

If he doesn't here, then where?