Frank Clooney's post below got me thinking about who else should be a saint. Given that I'm not the pope, I don't have much say in the matter, but here's my Top Five list. (I'm leaving out those who are already on the fast track like Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, John Henry Newman, etc.) Of course it all depends on whether these men and women get going and intercede for some miracles. But here are some whose causes seem obvious choices.
1.) John XXIII. Come on. He's about the holiest guy I can imagine. Read his incredible book The Journal of a Soul, a series of diary entries from the time he was a young seminarian to the end of his life, to see how humility can co-exist with great learning and wisdom. And how humor can co-exist with holiness. "Your Holiness, how many people work in the Vatican?" a journalist asked. "About half of them." How many popes could have a book like this written about them? Holy, prayerful, humble, funny, warm, loving, hardworking. Saint? A slam dunk.
2.) Dorothy Day. For all the reasons Fr. Clooney says. Her quote, "Don't make me a saint; I don't want to be dismissed that easily," is often used against those who support her canonization. But she had a great devotion to the saints, wrote a book about St. Therese of Lisieux, and understood their essential place in our faith. Her recently published journals, The Duty of Delight, edited by Robert Ellsberg, show new aspects of her holiness (for example, caring for the dying wife of her former husband, Forster). Amazing.
3.) Oscar Romero. Another obvious saint. And martyr, for God's sake. Literally. Killed for his defense of the poor, while he was celebrating Mass. The holdup is unbelievable. Almost unconscionable.
4.) Peter Favre. Never heard of him? Often called the "Second Jesuit." (That's him up top, in the cassock and biretta.) Close friend of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, and the man who Ignatius said could best direct people through the Spiritual Exercises. (And you figure Ignatius was a fairly good judge of this.) During the time of the Reformation, when everyone else was condemning Protestants, Peter (Pierre) was praying for them and reminding his brother Jesuits (and other Christians) to love them both in word and in deed. "Take care, take care," he wrote, "never to shut your heart to anyone." (That comment should make him the patron of bloggers.) His lovely (but long) Memoriale is a wonderful window into a sometimes-overlooked spiritual master. The pious legend is that he is still Blessed, and won't intercede for a miracle to cement his canonization, because he doesn't want to take the attention away from his friends Ignatius and Francis. But they're plenty famous now, Peter. Time for your final miracle.
5.) Dorothy Stang. Another martyr, though in a different context than we are used to. When her killers came for her, she read passages to them from her Bible. At a time when the Vatican is investigating the "quality of life" of American women religious, they might take a look at the quality of her life.
Santi subito!
Other suggestions welcome.
A few ideas off the top of my head:
From your own book - Pedro Arrupe needs to be added to the list. Not much of chance though, similar reasons to John XXIII
Other clergy/religious - Dom Helder Camara of Brazil, The UCA Martyrs and the Four US Churchwomen killed in El Salvador (there is a tradition of bringing in groups of martyrs - If I had to choose individually, I would advocate for Ita Ford, MM and Father Ellacuria)
Laity - Eileen Egan - a friend of Dorothy Day and Mother Theresa. Perhaps the person most responsible for the success of Catholic Relief Services. Her life story is pretty extraordinary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Egan Like Dorothy Day she does not offend the traditionalists. Radical politically - not so much on internal Church matters.
César Chávez
That goes back to the old tradition in the Church of popular acclaimation of saintly people. People know in their guts that someone's a saint, and the Medieval Church recognized this. Things are more buttoned-down now, but the Holy Spirit keeps speaking through the people saints have touched and impressed and inspired and consoled and affected while they lived. And this is the case with all the modern candidates for sainthood you mention. Everyone who even saw them speak on TV-let alone stood beside them-remembers Mother Teresa, Good Pope John, Dorothy Stang, the Maryknoll martyrs of El Salvador, Romero, Isaac Hecker, Mychal Judge and Dorothy Day as ''saints.''
Before long, an image of Dorothy Day will hang alongside the great doors of St. Patrick's where the saints of New York are remembered. Until then, she remains in the hearts and minds of New Yorkers what she is: the real saint of Bleeker Street.
http://www.marquette.edu/faber/
To keep it interesting, I will limit my list to Jesuits.
1- Bl. Peter Faber/Pierre Favre. He's been a blessed forever. I agree with Father entirely.
2- Bl. Miguel A. Pro, SJ. A martyr, a Jesuit whose greatest zeal was for souls and who didn't fear the reprisals of the Mexican government at the time it was seeking to suppress Catholicism.
3- Fr. William J. Doyle, SJ. His cause was pretty active until the early 60s and then dropped off. His biography reveals a man who was wildly holy, kind, gentle and absolutely in love with God.
4- SoG Ricardo Tena, SJ, martyred by the Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War. When the Society was suppressed in Spain, he was too old and ill to travel and couldn't leave Spain, like most of the other Jesuits had. So he was arrested and executed.
5- Fr. Alfred Delp, SJ, martyred by the Nazis in 1944.
6- Bp. Enrique San Pedro, SJ. A missionary who was forcibly ejected by TWO (count 'em) communist countries and whose greatest joy was in being a missionary, spreading the Gospel to those who had never heard it.
7- SoG Manuel Gonzalez, SJ. Another martyr of the Spanish Civil War. After being arrested, he was taken from prison in the middle of the night and executed.
8- Bl. Edward Oldcorne, SJ. English Martyr; when the executioner struck him with the axe, the blow was so violent an eye fell out. (!)
9- Fr. John Hayes, SJ, chaplain to the British forces in the China-Burma-India theatre of WW2. Would heroically race into crossfire to baptize dying Japanese soldiers. (Stop and ponder THAT for a moment.)
10- Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ. Duh.
11- Fr. John Hardon, SJ. Duh.
12- SoG Martin Santaella, SJ. Spanish Civil War martyr. Imprisoned in a prison ship in the harbor at Almerí, in southern Spain. Fr. Santaella was beaten and strangled in the coal bunker.
There.
An even dozen!
AMDG,
I'd second Alfred Delp, SJ, and Dom Helder Câmara, as well as the five on the original list
How about César Chávez?
Adding to the groups of martyrs of El Salvador - the four women and the UCA martyrs - what about the Trappists of the Monastery of Altlas, Tibhirine, Algeria - martyrs with a love for their Muslim brothers. The letter from the abbot (Dom Christian Chergé) should be a religious classic for its expression of love and forgiveness to his possible future killer.
Bartolomé de las Casas, OP
Blessed Frederick Ozanam, founder of the Vincent de Paul Society - and more
To remember the many African martyrs, at least Archbishop Joachim Ruhuma, archbishop of Gitega, Burundi, and Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa, S.J., of Bukavu, Zaire
Blessed Charles de Foucauld
And there must be some saints from Asia!
Am I askign too much?
7) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (No, he is NOT unorthodox; he's misunderstood. And if there is some stuff that's questionable, some of the Church Fathers got a few things wrong too.)
8) Also, isn't it about time we let Origen in there? So he got a few things wrong - what's a little heterodoxy among friends?
9) Meister Eckhart (OK, he's heretical here and there if taken literally, but if you're going to be heretical, you should do it in style; never has heresy been so shockingly beautiful!)
Interestingly, I know quite a few "anonymous" people who are just as saintly as the popular ones ... one, Darrell Grayson, was executed by the state of Alabama a couple of years ago. I suspect we all know such people. I tend to want these anonymous nobodies of the world to be included in the communion that we call "saints".
Sometimes the conferring of sainthood seems to me to a little like a celebrity contest, and I look for nobodies to balance it all out.
1. John Paul II
2. Pius XII
3. Servant of God Nelson H. Baker
4. Paul VI
5. My parents, wife, and twins (count as one selection)
A Maryknoll sister friend of mine has told me the story of another Maryknoll martyr, Sr. Agneta Chang, a Korean woman who was a member of the Maryknoll order. She was the only Maryknoll sister not under house arrest during WWII and its immediate aftermath. She pretended to be a member of a Korean order of nuns and was able to carry on much of the work. When the Korean war broke out she was arrested and eventually taken away by Communist forces, never to be seen again.
Speaking of Maryknoll, the founder of the Maryknoll Sisters, Mother Mary Joseph (Mollie) Rogers, was a remarkable woman who deserves consideration.
And the Trappist martyrs who also met their deaths in Algeria-though much more recently-great intercessors to remember in a world where Christian/Muslim dialog is so strained!
1) Fr. Thomas M. King, SJ (he died this past summer; he was a Jesuit at Georgetown, and a scholar of Teilhard)
2) Catherine McAuley (founder of the Sisters of Mercy)
3) Julian of Norwich
4) John Henry Newman
5) Flannery O'Connor
6) Thomas Merton
Once again, I agree with all these above. We have so many men and women that we can put up as examples for us all.
Personally, I would once again mention the name of Simon Gabrie Brute', first Bishop of Vincennes and spiritual director of Elizabeth Ann Seton.
His cause has begun and you can read more at: http://www.archindy.org/brute
2- I forgot to mention Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ. Mea maxima culpa.
AMDG,
Fr. McGivney because he empowered laymen a hundred years before it became fashionable. He described himself as a ''humble parish priest'', never sought the limelight, taught that laymen needed to get organized and fight anti-catholicism, and then died young. His movement, the Knights of Columbus is currently the largest Catholic organization in the world. If the Holy Spirit is not working here - where is it. It is about time we recognized the important role of Catholic priests here in America. For their personal sanctity and for them inspiring laity to go out and do the work of the Church. Fr. McGivney may have been humble but he got things done. Our modern Church has finally come to realize that if things are going to be done, it will be by the masses of dedicated laity rather than by a few brilliant individuals. Lets hear it for a couple of million hard working Catholics inspired by a humble parish priest preaching to a congregation of ''ignorant immigrant peasants of a despised ethnic group''.
Fr. Solanus simply because there needs to be a place in heaven for the humble servers of the world - lets face it he is the patron saint of the overachievers. Too intellectually limited to get into a diocesean major seminary he became a Francisian. He would have never gotten into St. Ignatius, or Georgetown or Fordham or Loyola. Even the Basilians would have probably rejected him. But, hey, the Jesuits do not have the only path to holiness. He ended up as the Porter of a second rate monestary in a second tier city but he had a spiritual presence that empowered his local. We are not all alphas and this should be recognized.