Dear Filomena, You're, probably, more Spirit-filled in this letter then the Pope in not canonizing J. Vaz. Thank you for being so Spirit-filled and vocal! Arisoto <www.SpiritualDirection.org>
Dear Fr. Peter, Everyone has a spin on the sainthood business. Yours is a very understanding and compassionate one toward those like Emilio and other Goans who feel that they have been cheated of a place in the Catholic Calendar of Saints, despite almost 500 years of devoted service for the Church, while other new nations have been given canonized saints who can hardly match the missionary service of our tiny Goan community. But you are misled on some important points about saint making. You write that Pope John Paul II has changed the face of the Church, canonized more saints, traveled more. You write that "the holy Spirit has power over bureaucracy" and if we are patient change will come, the lost files of Joseph Vaz will be found (incidentally, they aren't lost), and all will end well! 1. It is not Pope John Paul II or Paul VI or John XXIII who have suddenly and generously changed the Church to be less Eurocentric and more inclusive of the cultures she considered inferior for centuries - the fact of the matter is that the Church's attitudes to the colonial peoples had to change because of the Independence movement and the fact that the Europeans were no longer masters! It was then that Paul VI started to beatify natives of the Third World. It wasn't the Holy Spirit but a dictator of the Congo who told him that he was not going to host a Papal visit for Paul VI if he didn't beatify a native - and a beatification of a Congolese nun was produced instantly! If Goans had that kind of State backing, a Goan saint would have been made long ago. 2. Most of the saints canonized by Pope John Paul II are still European, not people of color. Your perception that this new saint making is benefiting us is incorrect. 3.You are mistaken that "the Holy Spirit has power over bureaucracy." Some say that the Holy Spirit is feminine, others that it is like a dove - whatever it is, it may have touched this or that, but it keeps missing Joseph Vaz and the Goans' desire for his canonization! The Holy Spirit may have enlightened the Vatican bureaucracy and the Pope, as you say, to canonize thousands of Martyrs during the Grand Jubilee of 2000: 126 Mexican Martyrs, 3000 Spanish Martyrs (including many Salesians), 120 Chinese Martyrs. As he had done in the case of Maximilien Kolbe, the Pope canonized them without a final miracle. Yet the Holy Spirit was not there for Joseph Vaz. We had found out that he qualified to be considered a Martyr under the laws of canonization because he had died under persecution. We petitioned that he be canonized as a Martyr for the Jubilee without the final miracle. Yes, said the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, he did qualify as a Martyr. But even Martyrs need a final miracle and only the Pope can waive the final miracle - as the Pope refused our Petition (which we worked and sweated over for more than a year), we can only conclude that the Holy Spirit selectively did not inspire the bureaucracy about Joseph Vaz! All is done at the whim and fancy of a few in the Vatican, not because of a Holy Spirit. 4. As for your statement: . "We need to be more united in contributing towards the defraying the huge costs involved in the making of a saint." - My advice is to go the Protestant route: knock off the saint making, save the money, invest it in the infrastructure, in jobs, become a rich and successful community. Luther stopped all the money going to the Vatican, and the northern German states invested the money in themselves, became industrialized, powerful and rich. Now, THAT will get us Goans saints faster than anything - after all, Japan which has produced hardly any vocations or missionaries, but is powerful and rich, has more canonized saints than Goa or any other Asian country so far. So, while I do appreciate the fact that you at least recognize that there are Goans out there who are hurt by the Church's refusal to recognize even one Goan saint - instead of rationalizing the situation away as others on Goanet have done - I have to take a more pragmatic stand than your spiritual counsel of simply being patient. With thanks and sincere respect for your caring tone, Filomena ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################