A-Z Challenge 24: Xenology (the Vatican way)

Religion is an interesting phenomenon, and sometimes it can be quite entertining too. Some years ago French literature's enfant terrible, Michel Houllebecq, said in an interview that  "Islam is the most stupid religion" (he was taken to court in Paris by a human rights group and several Islamic organizations, but Houellebecq, was found not guilty on the grounds of free speech). I’m not sure how he would rank the Catholic Church, but the Catholics do indeed stage some really entertaining shows, like the one we saw from Rome yesterday:

The late Popes John XXIII and John Paul II can now prepend Saint to their names. Yesterday, they were canonized by Pope Francis in the St Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican City (pontifex emeritus Benedict was there too, to watch the show).

Saint John and Saint John Paul will be added to the list of the 2000+ official saints that the Catholic Church already has. In addition there are thousands of unofficial saints, kind of local saints, not approved by the Pope, but more or less by acclamation in their neighborhood. That’s why the Catholics celebrate the All Saints Day (also known as All Hallows’ Day) on 1. November. The celebration starts on the night of 31. October, with All Saints’ Mass, and kids ringing the door bells asking for candy. The kids don’t know about the connection to the Catholic tradition, but who cares. Candy is candy, for Protestants, Catholics and Atheists.

I’m fine with the saint-fauna as a historical curiosity from the Medieval Times, and as a folklore tradition. Martin Luther didn’t like it. He thought the worshiping of saints was a violation of the 2nd and 3rd Commandments. It was one of the reasons why he started the reformation, but that’s different story.

What makes the saints ridiculous in the 21st century, is the formalized canonization process (from 1914, revised 1983) run by the Vatican bureaucracy. First there is the process called beatification , a detailed study which eventually leads to a written confirmation from the Vatican that the candidate-saint has performed at least one miracle, and has safely arrived in Heaven (in Internet-age this should be easy, if the candidate has updated his Facebook status). After the beatification (which has nothing to do with The Beatles), the candidate can prepend the title Blessed (Bl. for short) to his or her name.

But it takes more to become a saint. It must be documented that the wannabe-saint has performed a 2nd miracle after his death. This is the difficult part (because he wouldn’t brag about it on Facebook, of course). The written documentation of the miracle is carefully examined by the Vatican’s canonization office. For today’s canonization of the two popes, more than 2000 pages of documentation had been gathered. The Vatican takes their xenology seriously, just like they used to do with the stamp production.

I used to collect stamps when I was younger, and once I visited the Vatican's philatelist.shop, which was quite impressive at that time. Stamps used to be a big source of income for the Vatican, but I'm not sure if anyone collects stamps anymore

In some countries rhe religion known as Soccer in the USA, and as Football in the rest of the world, has become very popular. This religion has, among other merits, had great success attracting commercial sponsors.

The Catholic Church has always been good at acquiring earthly goods, and they have apparently learnt a couple of tricks from soccer. The event in Rome yesterday was sponsored by several major international companies, including Nestle and ENI (the Italian state oil company).  

Remember the 11th Commandment: “God is great; money is greater”. Amen >:)

(Do you remember Roberto Carlos’ free-kick goal for Brazil against France in 1997? It’s regarded as a miracle among soccer fans, and it’s documented on YouTube. Should be good for at least a beatification)