The Narthex

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…

When you strive to defend the achievements of Christian civilization you encounter an awful lot of kickback, a lot of angry hostility towards Christian culture. It can be dispiriting. But Christmas is a time for absolute and entirely positive joyfulness. It is not the chief Christian festival, for that honor is reserved to Easter, the…

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…

When I was a high school sophomore in 1956, my ambitious father accompanied me to an interview at the plush home of a Phillips Andover Academy board trustee. At the time, the school adhered to a code of "WASP Ascendancy," breeding a ruling class where only sons of the upper…

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…

I have suffered heart arrhythmia most of my adult life. It has afflicted my parents, siblings, and their offspring. Two have had their heart valves replaced. I have many maternal cousins with hip and knee replacements. The husband of my maternal aunt contracted a brain cancer that killed him and…

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…

A not-so-funny thing is happening as I age in (minimal) wisdom and (gratuitous) grace. I noticed it reading the Catholic Worker, as I’ve done since high school. The obituaries started to be the best part of the paper. How so? Because they tell a good part of the truth about…

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…

In order to have more lay models for the witnessing of the Faith, and to inspire lay vocations and holiness among the laity, I argue that the Church needs to increase the ratio of canonized laity to canonized priests/religious. This is not about “diversity” or “justice.” I’m not concerned with…