The Narthex

I previously cited individuals who tended patients with incurable, communicable diseases: Joseph Dutton who worked with St. Damien of Molokai, Dr. and Mrs. Harry Blaber, and Dr. Martin Salia who died in 2014. Others who risk death for the sake of another include fire and police personnel. On March 24,…

Let's take a look at individuals who have risked death for the sake of another. Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, wrote a long essay that recounted the history of the development of the Apostolic Letter On Offer of Life, a document quoted…

In Part XVII, I brought up the issue of prominence and clarified that by identifying prominent people, I do not mean to imply that prominence is a criterion for canonization. Prominence is why a larger public knows about them. This allows us to have a conversation about whether they, and…

We expect holy laywomen and laymen to be living the Beatitudes. Let us continue our discussion of examples of this. Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake Under this heading, I want to address the gift of long-suffering and the witness of “martyr-confessors.” One of the 12 Fruits…

We would expect holy laywomen and laymen to be living the Beatitudes, as Pope Francis wrote in his March 19, 2018, Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (“On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World”). Living the Beatitudes, he wrote, “is holiness.” Within the "framework of holiness offered by the Beatitudes…

What’s the right “build” or “profile” for a non-martyred lay saint? It’s fair to say that we don't live our lives aspiring to be canonized saints. But we do aspire to be saints. French novelist Léon Bloy wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy…

One prominent member of the hierarchy who readily recognized holiness in the laypeople whom he knew personally was Pope St. John Paul II. Part X of this blog series mentioned one layman whose holiness he recognized: Jan Tyranowski. John Paul II declared him a Servant of God on April 28,…

Let’s recap: During the 40 years from 1978 to October 2018, fifteen to twenty laypersons were canonized, including a few to whom Our Lady appeared, two who took vows of chastity, and a stigmatist, leaving only a handful of men and women who married and had children. Pope Francis has…

Let us continue with our systematic, chronological look at the sainthood “pipeline” and decisions made by Pope Francis in late 2018, 2019, and January through May 2020 with respect to the recognition of martyrdom, miracles, and heroic virtues. Nov. 8, 2018: 24 people, 11 of whom were martyrs. Of the…

Pope Francis advanced more souls along the “pipeline” to canonization in 2017 and 2018. Let's continue our systematic, chronological look at them: Feb. 27, 2017: 8 people, including one martyr. Of the non-martyrs: four were priests (one of them a diocesan-founder) or religious, three of whom were founders. The two…

Before we turn to recent years, I'll add one more lay Blessed to the last blog’s “Lay Saints 'In the Pipeline'": Frédéric Ozanam (1813-1853) was a lawyer who founded the lay St. Vincent de Paul Society. He had 13 siblings but only two of them survived to adulthood. He was…

Let us take a look at the laypersons who are in the pipeline to be canonized. I have not researched all of the hundreds of Blesseds, Venerables, and Servants of God. In 2006, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, who headed the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said there were more…

The funds and perseverance required to promote the causes of holy ones are commonly supplied by religious Orders, who promote their own members, especially their founders and foundresses. But what about married people? Two theologians at the University of Notre Dame gave their opinion on the occasion of the 2001…

As stated in Part VI of this blog series, during the 40 years from 1978 to October 2018, there have been 1,419 individuals canonized. Of these, 170 were non-martyrs. For anyone who thinks there are large numbers of people being canonized, and indeed the numbers are exponentially greater than before…

The Statistical Yearbook of the Church states that there are 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. These numbers are baptized, not practicing, Catholics. France, for example, reports 44 million Catholics among its 59 million residents, but the French church claims about four million practicing Catholics. In Poland, weekly attendance, according to local…