Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

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Beatification of Pope John Paul II

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On Sunday Pope Benedict XVI will preside at the beatification of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Beatification is a step in the process by which the Church examines the lives of people to discern if they exhibited heroic virtue during their lives. The process also requires a confirmed miraculous event attributed to his or her intercession.

After Sunday’s ceremony, the former Pope will be referred to as Blessed Pope John Paul II. Sunday’s beatification is significant in that Pope John Paul died only six years ago. This came about because Pope Benedict XVI waived the usual five year waiting period before a canonization cause can be introduced. He did the same for Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Pope John Paul II himself simplified the canonization process in order to change the image of a saint. He wanted people to realize that sainthood was not restricted to medieval mystics but was a state that was achieved by ordinary Christians who struggled to lead virtuous lives while dealing as best they could with the realities of the tumultuous world in which we live.

Few would argue that Pope John Paul lived in tumultuous times. He completely changed the image of the Papacy bursting out of the walls of the Vatican as none before him had done. His travels took him not only to Catholic or Christian countries, but to nations where the gospel was virtually unknown. He saw the future in the youth of the world and reached out to them in unprecedented ways. He faced down Marxist materialism and made the Chair of Peter an international pulpit. Few would question his holiness which provided us all with a witness of how to live and how to die.

Some have raised questions about the appropriateness of his beatification at this time when some of his actions as Pope are still being scrutinized, but the fact that he lived a life of heroic virtue is difficult to deny. He also was an unflinching defender of the Faith.

The Church does not make saints. God does. The Church discerns and recognizes saintliness in the lives of men and women.

I join the millions who rejoice that the Church has recognized saintliness in the life of Pope John Paul II.

Saints are not perfect

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With the imminent beatification of Pope John Paul II and the recent beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta many are asking “what does it mean to be a saint? Does a person have to live a perfect and sinless life to become a saint?”

I do not intend to address the formal canonical process leading to canonization. I suspect there will be a number of such articles in the coming weeks. What I want to stress is that people like Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa were normal human beings with all the strengths and weaknesses that are part of the human condition. They made mistakes, they made errors in judgment, and they became frustrated and lost their temper at times. What is important is that they didn’t give up on God.

Like each of us they were called to discipleship, to follow Jesus, to seek to imitate him so closely that they might say with St. Paul, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20), for that is the goal of discipleship. However, human nature being what it is saints find themselves also saying, as St. Paul did, “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” (Rom 7:15)

The Church uses the term “heroic virtue,” which could be defined as constantly seeking to imitate Jesus, gladly, even in the face of internal and external opposition, often at a considerable personal sacrifice. That means it is not easy and includes a lot of forgiving and being forgiven.

It also means that there are many out there who demonstrate heroic virtue in their lives but will never be formally recognized as venerable or blessed or as saints. They are the saints of Dallas or Plano or Waxahachie. Their road to sainthood is not on the streets of Calcutta or in the Vatican, but in the office, in the classroom, in the factory or in the kitchen.

This in no way takes away from Pope John Paul II or Mother Teresa. It means that saintliness does not preclude human weaknesses. It does mean not giving up on God, knowing that we are never abandoned by God, never without the Divine presence, never without the grace of the Holy Spirit.

People do not set out to be saints, they become disciples of Jesus.