St. Toonces Felinomena*
What about Fulton?
Anyone ever hear of a St. Fulton? Not yet, you say? You are telling me Fulton Sheen could be canonized?
Then there would be a St. Fulton?
Really? Having read recently that Catholics are not bound to give canonizations the absolute assent de fide we always were taught was required, why bother with saints in the first place? Or why worry about giving kids a saints name at baptism? Fulton Sheen wasn't given a saint's first name. (If he's ever canonized do you think those devoted to Sheen will claim it's invalid?) So anyway.
Why not call a kid Toonces? When he dies, he could become the first St. Toonces - like St. Fulton. Ah! But is it Irish?
What?
I love the saints - for me, beatification is enough - oh heck - venerable is enough. If someone is designated servant of God - that's enough too. One can't be holier than the Church, can one? Especially the Church triumphant.
Now what if someone accepts Archbishop Sheen is a saint but rejects John Paul II or Paul VI as a saint? I mentioned the other day that some people reject JoseMaria Escriva as a saint - despite the fact he has been canonized. You just can't make up stuff and pick and choose what you want to believe. If you decide that the JPII canonization is not de fide - then why would anyone have to believe Pius X is a saint?
After the Council, when the new calendar was drawn up and implemented, secular media declared that certain saints were no longer saints. That was not entirely true. Some were simply removed from the liturgical calendar because historical evidence wasn't able to support the hagiography. There was also the rare occasion when some saints grew out of legend, who may have been the personification of myth, and from a time when there wasn't a process as we have today. Others may have been removed from the calendar because their 'cult' may not have been as 'universal' as it once was, thus allowing more contemporary saints to take their place. Though the calendar was reformed, the Martyrology remained and continues to expand with the times.
I may be wrong, but I think canonization implies that the saint is entered into the Canon of the Mass, although liturgical norms remain and the Canons remain intact, nevertheless, the saint's name may be inserted, such as;
"with St. Toonces, and all the saints". The new saint is venerated and invoked in prayer, that is, publicly and universally celebrated, especially liturgically - with a collect and Mass, and so on. I may not explain the process perfectly, but you get my point that this is very serious stuff - nothing to take lightly, much less to pick and choose who or what you want to believe in, especially when it comes to the liturgical life of the Church.
I hope you can see why it is wrong to sow doubt amongst the simple believers, who are told they must pick a saints name for baptism and confirmation, and who are, by baptism, called to be a saint. Thus, when the Church proclaims someone a saint, you better believe it.
Don't dis the saints, Poodles.
* Patron saint of drivers. And Felinomena appears to be an Italian name.
"Why is this Nelson freak
still allowed to blog?"
