I’m not sure I would agree with this - after all, Pope Benedict himself said he was going to canonize fewer saints than John Paul II had done so.
I don’t know if he said this or not. But what he can do is to reduce the number of cases that are postulated, which would have the effect of less canonizations. What he cannot do is to hide a miracle or what God has done through one of his saints.
Once he acknowledges the miracle, then he must follow suit and acknowledge that the person is a Blessed or a Saint.
There is the difference.
The practical reason for doing so is liturgical and pastoral - there are far too many saints for the entire Roman Rite to venerate (about 20-some per day whose cult extends to the entire Roman Rite, so far,
This consideration has never really determined canonizations for a number of reasons. First of all, the Roman Church does not follow one single liturgical calendar. We have at least 20 different liturgical calendars that run simultaneously. Each major order of men has its own liturgical calendar, which is different from the Roman calendar. For example, in the Franciscan calendar, only those major solemnities from the Roman calendar are observed. The rest of the feasts are only Franciscan saints or saints that the Franciscan superiors choose for their us to venerate. Each order does the same thing.
Then there are regional calendars. We have a different Roman Calendar in the USA than they do in South America and so forth.
Finally, the Church does rotate the calendar. I believe it was Paul VI who did that last rotation. I’m trying to recall the year that it was done. You may recall better than I can. I’m old and tired.
and many thousands of more for each Eastern church in communion with Rome) and far too many to capture the hearts and imaginations of the faithful. To be a saint is not just an acknowledgment that someone is in Heaven, but the ecclesiastical blessing of a cult. And in some cases it might be more prudent to restrict the cult to a diocese or national Church,
This is already done in the Roman Church. Not all saints are in every calendar, as I explained above.
or to simply leave the person as “Venerable” or “Blessed” (in which case they would not be given much of a liturgical cult if any).
You can leave a person a Venerable or a Blessed, if you do not acknoledge that they have met the criteria for beatification or canonization. But once you acknowledge that they have done so, you’re being dishonest not to proceed to the next step.
In this case, Pope Benedict wants to see John Paul canonized. This is a concern that merits special attention and respect. The pope can WANT to canonize, because he feels inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so. In that case, he has every right to proceed as he wishes. The faithful do not have the right to lead him. It is he who leads the Church, not the Church who leads Peter.
Also, most of the Eastern saints outside the Maronite Church are not formally canonized by the Pope (with some exceptions - St. Sergei of Radonezh and St. Josaphat of Polotsk for example), despite having more than ample evidence of their sanctity through miracles - instead, the Pope simply permits their cult throughout all of the sui juris Churches of the Byzantine Rite. That’s simply an acknowledgement of an ancient tradition regarding the manner of the glorification of a saint - but it presumes that a cult already exists prior to any canonization that may take place, rather than the assumption that a cult is established by such canonization.
When the canons for canonization were written, they did not apply to the Oriental Churches. They still do not. It’s up to each sui iuris Church to establish its own manner of acknowleding someone’s sanctity. However, the pope always reserves the right to canonize, even a saint of the Oriental Churches.
And following this principle, it is pretty clear that a cult to Blessed John Paul II already exists. (I can’t speak for the Western Church, where his cultus is common knowledge, but for his cult in the Eastern Church just look at Dr. Roman’s “Akathist to John Paul the Great, Pope of Rome”.)
It is true. A cult to him already exists. But it is also clear that the Pope wants to see this canonization. You may have read what I posted before about the Franciscan saints. There was a cult to them. However, Pope Gregory IX and Alexander IV wanted to see them formally canonized. Pope Gregory IX did the same thing with St. Dominic. St. Dominic’s case was even more interesting, because Gregory mandated a cult to him in the universal Church and he said that Dominic’s sanctity should not be doubted any more than that of Peter and Paul.
Popes have the right to want to proceed with a canonization either through the ordinary process or like Gregory, through their own Apostolic Authority.
Once the bull of beatification is signed, which was done a few days ago, what is left for the faithful to say? It’s a papal bull, just like when the pope appoints an Archbishop. He issues a bull which is a binding decision. Put another way, it is somethign to which the pope has committed himself. He has made a promise to the People of God that this beatification will take place May 1, 2011.
St. Francis once said something that appllies here. “If the Lord Pope wishes it to be so, so must we. What other choice have we?” Francis was a practical man.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
