Saint John Paul II

I am not Catholic, heck I'm not even a Christian but that doesn't stop me and every other citizen of this planet from having an opinion.

I saw an article today on CTV that says a majority of Canadians want John Paul to be made a saint. Now admittedly as an atheist I don't hold alot of truck with saints and such but it seems to me that being a saint is something pretty special. In the old days there weren't exactly whole truckloads of saints being ferried about. I mean there were a few big ones .... St Francis comes to mind and Saint Nick (was he really a saint?) after that I draw a blank but then again I DID say I wasn't Catholic. Before you all go yelling at me I DO know there are a lot more obscure ones but that isn't really my point.

The point is, it was HARD to become a saint. Merely being popular didn't cut it. If I recall correctly a certified miracle had to be involved. Now I know people point at LOTS of things these days and call them a miracle but the sun coming up while nice isn't a miracle. Surviving cancer with modern medical help is WONDERFUL but not a miracle. Having a cookies come out of my oven, not burnt is rare but still .... no miracle. Get it? Miracles are not nor should they be common. That said, as an atheist I happen to think all so called miracles are just happy coincidence, but for the purpose of this essay I am going to allow that christians at least, believe they are a fact. So what was John Paul's miracle? Surviving an assasination attempt? Becoming the first non Italian pope? Are those really miracles? Could they really NOT have happened without divine intervention? I always thought miracles were things that happened that couldn't possibly happen under the laws we live with. Things like turning water into wine, walking on water, talking bushes, parting seas .... stuff like that. Today's miracles seems sort of .... I dunno .... shallow in comparision.

Pope John Paul II, I believe, provided I have my facts straight, created more saints during his tenure than any previous pope. Most people opining on the subject that I have heard think that this was a good thing. I disagree. Creating so many saints imo cheapens it. If it's so easy to become a saint, is it really all that special? If every Tom, Dick and John Paul become saints doesn't that just make it sort of just a higher class of regular christian.

I don't know, maybe I am just too cynical, but it seems to be that this fast track conveyor belt to sainthood is a really really bad idea for the Catholic faith. Makes it too mundane. Too ordinary. But hey it's their church not mine, that's just my opinion.

Resource Link Here - Most Cdns. think Pope should be named saint: poll


IA