I am not Catholic and don’t have any but the most superficial understanding of what is required to be made a saint. Still, I’m pretty sure that before sainthood is decreed, there must be proof of a miracle attributable to him/her.
If I am right about this (and I recognize that I may not be), what will JP’s miracle be? Is/are there any already documented?
I think the cause for the late Pope’s beatification (not canonisation) has begun. Proof of a miracle resulting from his intercession will be required for beatification to proceed successfully. Presumably the promoters of his cause are sifting through evidence looking for possible miracles.
How common is it for Popes to be canonized? What percentage of previous popes became saints?
Up until about 900 CE, it was extremely common; one might say it was the norm. Since then, only five popes have been canonized, the last being Pius X (1903-1914). (The first school I attended was named after him.) Also, two antipopes have been canonized, and eight popes beatified but not made saints.
Unless the sitting Pope decided to short-circuit the whole process (and it would look cheap), Wojtyla needs one “verified” miracle for beatification, then another for canonization (since he was not a martyr). The process usually has a 5-year waiting period before the motions can be filed, but this is waivable by the incumbent Pope. John Paul did that for Mother Teresa, in turn Benedict did it for John Paul.
Please educate me. Is it true that a Saint is a person for whom folks feel there is enough evidence that said person was holy enough to be assured that said person is in heaven?
I believe so.
Quite frankly, I think John XXIII should be canonized before JP2.
A canonized saint. In a manner of speaking, everyone “up there” is a saint, but we (that is, Catholics) only call someone a saint if we (as a global community) are darn sure of it.
Think of constructions like, “my sainted grandmother”. The speaker is confident himself that grammy is in Heaven, but the church doesn’t recognize St. Grammy even though the speaker very well may be right.
I had understood that John XXIII had been beatified (sort of the halfway step to canonization) already. Anyone who can confirm or confute that?
Standard doctrine among those who recognize big-S Saints is, all Christians are saints, or at minimum all who have gone to Heaven. (Paul’s usage is to apply it to all, alive in the flesh or passed to their reward.)
Canonization is a process by which the relevant authority (the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints in the case of Catholics, the local bishop for Orthodox, and the national church body for those Anglicans who engage in it) establishes evidence that the relevant individual (1) has been taken into Heaven – normally by the working of miracles by God at the putative saint’s behest, for Catholicism, and (2) is someone worthy of being held up as an exemplary Christian.
It’s not that Granny is any less a saint than Francis of Assisi or Charles Borromeo; it’s that the latter’s lives and teachings make them good examples of how to live a Christian life, worthy of broad recognition by the church at large.
A good example of a non-Catholic saint is Tikhon of Moscow, whose ministry covered the U.S. and Russia, recognized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox and by the American Episcopal Church.
Beatified in 3 September 2000 by JP2. Simultaneously with the long-pending beatification of Pius IX, thus pleasing both “liberals” and “conservatives” within the Church.
Is there a patron saint of sexually abused children? There should be one for the children to pray to when they don’t feel they can tell anyone else. How about JPII if he gets in?
Not specifically sexual abuse, but there are patron saints for victims of child abuse:
I don’t know about that. JP pretty much ignored the problem with pedophillic priests until it bit him on the ass. You’d have to find a saint who was abused as a child, but rose up to accomplish good things despite his childhood.
As for canonization, if you want to use a legal analogy, beatification is like proving someone’s saintliness by a preponderance of evidence, while canonization is beyond a reasonable doubt.