{"id":432,"date":"2008-02-18T13:20:53","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T13:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/on-sainthood.html"},"modified":"2008-02-18T13:20:53","modified_gmt":"2008-02-18T13:20:53","slug":"on-sainthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/on-sainthood.html","title":{"rendered":"On sainthood"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, new guidelines for the diocesan level of the canonization process were announced:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Instruction is divided into six sections, said Cardinal Saraiva, going on to explain: “The first draws attention to the need for a true reputation of holiness before beginning a process, and explains the duties and roles of the petitioner, the postulator and the competent bishop. The second part describes the preliminary phase of the cause which extends as far as the ‘Nihil Obstat’ of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The third section concerns the instruction of the cause. The fourth part concentrates on the gathering of documentary proof and the fifth on the gathering of proof from witnesses. Finally, the sixth section of the document outlines the procedures for the closing of the inquiry”.
\nThe cardinal then went on to consider the reasons for the publication of the document, pointing out that 25 years have passed since the promulgation by John Paul II of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Divinus Perfectionis Magister’<\/a>, and of the ‘Normae servandae’ by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints<\/a>. Since then, he said, “in some dioceses, certain provisions of the law have not always been understood and, consequently, not been put into practice with the necessary meticulousness, the which has sometimes made it necessary for the congregation to supply clarifications or to ask diocesan curias to correct errors”.
\nFurthermore, he added, “dioceses do not always have access to specialised individuals with practical experience of the various procedures involved in a cause of canonisation”. For this reason, “it is evident that a practical document, such as this Instruction, was useful, indeed necessary”.
\n“When the current legislation on causes of saints came into force”, said the cardinal outlining another reason for the publication of the present document, “an unfounded idea became widespread that the traditional methodology … had been substituted by some kind of historical-critical investigation”. And he identified the reason for this confusion in “the fact that the term ‘inquisitio’ used in Latin (the only official text) to designate the procedure of the diocesan phase of a cause of canonisation was translated in Italian as ‘inchiesta’ (inquiry)”. This Instruction, then, highlights “the importance of procedure” in causes of beatification and canonisation, “and accurately highlights the norms that must be observed”.
\nTurning to the last reason for which the document was published, Cardinal Saraiva noted how, “in the move from the earlier legislation to that in force today, it was unclear to some people that a serious and rigorous verification of the fame of sanctity or martyrdom, undertaken in dioceses, is a prior requirement of absolute importance. Hence, a procedure must not be begin without irrefutable proof that the Servant of God … is held to be a saint or martyr by a considerable number of faithful, who invoke him or her in their prayers and attribute graces and favours to his or her intercession”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Instruction, as far as I can tell, is not online yet. When it does get posted, I imagine you would find it here. <\/a>
\nThere is a lot going on here, but one thing is clear from the last point that Cardinal Saraiva makes. The Instruction, it seems, is presented with the intention of curbing the more “political” aspects of the canonization process in which an individual (or group) is put forward, yes, because of their perceived holiness, but also because their canonization would legitimize a cause or strengthen a religious order.\u00a0 (This has always been an element of the process – an interesting look at this is described in the book Spanish Rome 1500-1700<\/a>, <\/em>a chapter of which examines the political aspect of the push to canonize (the inarguably saintly!) Spanish saints of the 16th and 17th centuries). This isn’t, as it might seem at first glance, a question of a simplistic sense of popularity – read on to the end of what the Cardinal says – without having read the document itself, it almost seems as if what he’s saying is, “Stop presenting your candidates and then scrambling around for miracles. Give it time for a more organic devotion to arise.”
\nOf course, that’s all guesswork on my part…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, new guidelines for the diocesan level of the canonization process were announced: The Instruction is divided into six sections, said Cardinal Saraiva, going on to explain: “The first draws attention to the need for a true reputation of holiness before beginning a process, and explains the duties and roles of the petitioner, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOn sainthood - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/on-sainthood.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On sainthood - 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}