Associated Press: By selecting a Pennsylvania-born Catholic as his No. 2, Obama is betting the potential rewards — including swaying elusive lunch-pail Catholics in the Midwest — outweigh the risks.
The whole story is here.
Padre Gaetano Catanoso (1879-1963) experienced a relatively quick route to sainthood — about 25 years from the start of his cause to the canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2005. This blog post regarding Father Nelson H. Baker (1842-1936) of Buffalo, N.Y., is a reminder of how long and difficult the path can be for many who are already deemed saints by their ardent followers.
An excerpt: “One of the most frustrating things about the process of establishing that someone is a saint, that someone is with God and can act as an intermediary between God and those still living, is proving miracles. In Father Baker’s case, over 20 healings have been investigated so far for his cause, and none of them have passed muster in Rome.
News report: “Benedict XVI says that the pontificate of Pope John Paul II can be divided into two equally important parts: the years when he took the Gospel to the world and the years of his ‘passion.’ ”
An interesting story, here, in which Pope Benedict reflects on the final years of his predecessor’s life.
Frank Wilson, the former book editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s book review section, reviews My Cousin the Saint today in the Sunday paper. The review is here. I think he liked the book, and was really taken by Padre Gaetano Catanoso, the man who became a saint.
Excerpt: “The real miracle on display in this book is the life of Gaetano Catanoso. Here was a man unaffected by theological subtleties, spouting no mystical mumbo-jumbo, content to pray, celebrate Mass, and be unwaveringly good and kind. In short, a good priest … the soul of the book is Padre Gaetano. We all need to become better acquainted with him.”
Chapter 18 of my book is titled “The Real Gaetano.” It describes my search while in Calabria two summers ago to find the man behind the saint, to gain insights into Padre Gaetano Catanoso that went beyond hagiography and into the heart and soul of the real human being who endured such difficult times in the first half of the 20th century. As I wrote:
“For weeks I would try occassionally, gently, to scrape off a bit of the saintly patina gilding the life of Padre Gaetano. I had this notion that I would recognize him more fully, and relate to him more clearly, if I could somehow glimpse the man who walked the earth like the rest of us, foibles and all…Yet who alive would know the real Gaetano? Who would be old enough now, forty-three years after the saint’s death, to have known him as a peer, not as a child? Who would have seen him through clear eyes in the context of his time and in concert with other priets toiling in the same troubled fields?”
Well, you’re looking at her here, on the left, Maria Mariotti, of Reggio Calabira, 91 at the time, and sharp and feisty as someone 30 years younger. I was led to her by Enza Catanoso, on the right, a cousin of mine. Maria Mariotti was a rare breed for her generation in Italy (or anywhere else, really) — a college-educated woman, a scholar and historian, independent and strong-willed. I spent an spellbinding morning with her, as my interpreter translated her wisdom and insight for me. Maria Mariotti knew the real Gaetano (”He was not the only priest doing good; don’t create these idols!”.) And she told me as much as she could.
The inset photo is of her desk in the modest and spare room, filled with books and papers and lit by a single bare light bulb, where we spoke with her.
Hard to set aside talk of saints today when a new one with American ties will soon be named: Father Damien, a missionary priest from Belgium who cared for lepers in Hawaii in the 19th century before contracting the disease himself and dying at age 49. Pope Benedict XVI, who canonized Padre Gaetano Catanoso in 2005 in his first-such ceremony, cleared the way this week for Father Damien.
Hawai’i magazine.com reports: :“Father Damien—born Jozef de Veuster in 1840—arrived in Honolulu from Belgium in 1864. Working with Catholic missionaries, he was eventually moved by the plight of thousands of Hawaii leprosy patients sent by government order to Molokai’s isolated Kalaupapa peninsula. Father Damien moved to Molokai in 1873 to live among the sufferers and minister to them. He would spend the rest of his life on the island. After contracting leprosy—now known as Hansen’s disease—he died in 1889.”
The entire story is here. Whispers in the Loggia blog reports here.
Father Jim Martin, author, joyful priest and foremost authority on saints, discusses such topics here.
