Two New Saints, III

The whole world watched on Sunday, April 27, as Pope Francis canonized two of his predecessors, John XXIII and John Paul II.  Last week it was announced that Pope Francis will beatify another predecessor, Paul VI, in October.  Beatification is the final step before canonization as a saint.

In October also Pope Francis will preside at an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops.  The topic is "pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization."  Everyone knows that it is very difficult for one man and one woman to faithfully live the sacrament of marriage.  The synod will offer help and support to married people and families.

Just as the church needs saintly examples of popes, so the church needs saintly examples of married men and women.

So let me suggest to Pope Francis that one initiative he might suggest to the Synod of Bishops is that over the next ten years the Catholic Church make a worldwide effort to identify and tell the stories of married couples who have lived saintly lives.

The first step could be to repeat what the pope did last year.  He asked the diocesan bishops of the world to conduct inquiry among the faithful in their dioceses regarding knowledge of and adherence to the teachings of the church regarding the sacrament of marriage.  Unfortunately the time frame given to the bishops and dioceses was very short, and only about one third of the U.S. diocese actually did public surveys, and fewer dioceses overseas.

In this case, the pope could ask every bishop around the world to identify holy married couples from their diocese who lovingly lived out the teachings of the church on marriage.  Bishops could take suggestions from church historians, veteran pastors, the faithful at large, fraternal and ethnic organizations, and the leadership of organizations which support marriage and family life.

After a period of time, perhaps three to five years, any bishops who feel they have found one or several couples who lived in their diocese, whose holiness was truly public, exemplary, and extraordinary, and whose holiness can be documented, could forward the names of the couples and their investigation dossiers to their national conference of Catholic bishops.  Here from a more objective perspective, national conference staff (perhaps helped by teams of volunteer married couples) would review all candidates.  Then, after a period of several years, names of worthy and saintly couples would be given to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints for its lengthy and deliberate consideration.

Think of it--the entire worldwide church would be looking for married saints!

While the church is at it, why limit the search just to holy married couples?  Why not cast a wider net, and search for holy single men and women, and holy widows and widowers?

The upcoming extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family will repeat and reecho the traditional church teachings on the sacrament of marriage.  We learn Christ's teachings not only from catechisms, textbooks and papal writings, but also from stories--stories of saintly figures from the past.

The Catholic Church needs more saints who never attended a seminary, or monastery or convent.  The Catholic Church needs more saints who worked in factories, offices and farms, schools, mines and the military.  The Catholic Church needs more saints from every culture and language who changed diapers, raised children and attended Sunday Mass in their parish, and who practiced the teachings of Christ with as much faith and fervor as the Twelve Apostles and early martyrs, with as much courage and dedication as St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.  I have no doubt that they are "out there."  We just have to find them and lift them up.

Let's tell the stories of holy married couples, single women and men and widowed women and men, to show the world the special power of love in the sacraments of baptism and marriage.