I am studying the Renaissance period, and, in particular, the life and writings of St. Thomas More. Why did the Church take so long to canonize this saint?
We can only speculate, but here are three possible reasons:
He was a layman. Priests and religious usually are canonized much faster than laypeople because they have dioceses and religious orders that take special interest in having them canonized and the access to Rome to influence timely proceedings. Those laypeople who are canonized more quickly are usually affiliated with a religious order in some way (e.g., member of a third order). Thomas More was a secular Franciscan, but he had two additional obstacles:
He was a lawyer. Because of his work as a public official in the government of King Henry VIII, scholars had to sift through all of More’s known writings and actions as a public official to be certain that they did not contradict Catholic doctrine and morals.
He was a martyr from a country in painful schism from the Church and which the Church hoped for a number of centuries could be reunited with the Holy See. To have canonized Thomas More and the other Catholic Tudor martyrs during the living memory of their countrymen could have contributed to seriously jeopardizing the Church’s chances of healing the schism with the Church of England and may also have put the country’s hidden Catholics at risk of increased persecution.
DISCLAIMER: Catholic Answers has turned over the archive to Catholic-Questions.org and no longer owns, manages, or moderates the forums. For additional apologetics resources please visit www.catholic.com.
