Hot Off the Press: Garry Wills and Michael D'Antonio on Decision to Canonize John Paul II

Garry Wills

And the discussion of the plans to canonize John Paul II continues: here's Garry Wills yesterday in the New York Review of Books (with much gratitude to Mary O'Grady for emailing me this link). Wills notes that John Paul II himself beatified John XXIII in tandem with Pius IX, who has long been distasteful to many  Catholic thinkers because his Syllabus of Errors condemned, well, everything, including democracy and the whole enterprise of modernity:

More Commentary on John Paul II and His Legacy: Australian Priest Fr. Eric Hodgens on John Paul's "Lust for Power"

Fr. Eric Hodgens

Another posting I'd like to lift out of the vault of previous postings here, as the canonization of John Paul II is discussed--this is from January 2011, and features the commentary of an Australian priest in December 2010 about John Paul II and his legacy. What follows is that January 2011 posting, re-posted today:

Michael Sean Winters on USCCB and Affordable Care Act: Role of Lawyers in Dictating Pastoral Leadership

Michael Sean Winters writes about how the lawyers litigating the lawsuits of the Catholic bishops against the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act appear to be leaning on the bishops to keep the bishops from stating outright whether or not they'll close down Catholic hospitals to avoid compliance with the ACA's provision of contraceptive coverage. He asks,

New Jersey Star-Ledger on Cardinal Timothy Dolan's Smoking Gun

And, since the media blitz over the announcement that John Paul II and John XXIII will be canonized together tempts us to forget altogether about that news of Cardinal Timothy Dolan's transfer of $57 million to put the money beyond the reach of abuse survivors in Milwaukee, here's a reminder of that stale old story from last week: this is an editorial that the New Jersey Star-Ledger published yesterday, entitled "Cardinal Timothy Dolan's Smoking Gun." Here's a selection of the editorial's commentary:

A Catholic Parish Priest on Beatification of JPII: "The Rush to Make This Man a Saint Is Abhorrent and Arrogant"

John Paul Blesses Maciel

Here's another article that I find re-circulating right now, after Pope Francis has announced his intent to proceed with the canonization of John Paul II: this is from 2011, and is by Kevin Cullen at the Boston Globe. It dates from the time of John Paul's beatification. I'm especially struck by the comments of Father Jim Scahill, a parish priest in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, who was asked whether he intended to preach about the beatification of John Paul in his homily at Sunday Mass:

A Reader Writes: "The Whole Sainthood Question Makes Me Cringe"

John Paul Blesses Maciel

In what I posted yesterday about the construction of saints, Janet Hanson writes a powerful response noting that the whole process of canonization is premised on theological notions and practices that take the Catholic church far back into a past that perhaps needs to be examined more critically:

"How Much Filth There Is in the Church": Jason Berry on the Flow of Corrupt Money in the Vatican, with Implications for JPII Canonization

As we continue thinking about and discussing the decision of Pope Francis to continue the plans for canonization of Pope John Paul II, I want to fish another article from my archives here. This is something I posted back in April 2010, which points to the important research of Jason Berry on the financial wheelings and dealings of Fr. Marcial Maciel inside the Vatican. I highly encourage you to read (or re-read) the Berry article to which the posting links.