POLLING INDUSTRY: “HOPELESSLY OBSOLETE” By Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. (author of Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between […]
HIGH PRICE OF CANONIZATION
Uncategorized September 5, 2016, 0 Comment 40HIGH PRICE OF CANONIZATION
SAINTS’ FACTORY PRODUCES BILLIONS FOR HOLY SEE
by
Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
(special to Great Awakening News)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is now a saint, despite her questioning of God’s existence; her operational of a facility for the dying that was compared to a Nazi Germany death camp; and her submission to an exorcism after she claimed that she was possessed by a devil.
Sainthood doesn’t come cheaply.
It costs in excess of $1 million. Most of this money was raised by the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order established by Mother Teresa in 1950.
During the reign of Pope Paul VI, the Roman Catholic Church came up with a novel way of obtaining new revenue: the creation of a saints’ factory. By the time of his death in 1978, Paul VI had canonized more saints, 84, than any of his papal predecessors.[i] In addition, he beatified 39 additional religious figures, a record number. But these figures were soon shattered by John Paul II who canonized 482 saints and proclaimed 1,338 blessed.[ii]
As the saints went marching into the Kingdomof Heaven, the Vatican’s coffers swelled to overflowing. To open a cause for beatification and canonization costs $75,000 to $100,000, an amount which must be supplemented with payments to the theologians, bishops, and physicians who must examine the background and physical remains of the candidate. When the cause is deemed worthy and advanced, the cost skyrockets to $750,000 and more. This price covers the work of the researchers, the postulators (who guide causes through the judicial process), and the drafters of the positio (a portfolio of the candidate’s deeds and accomplishments). Upon the candidate being pronounced suitable for sainthood, appropriate gifts must be provided for the preparation and performance of liturgical celebration.[iii]
A BILLION $ BUSINESS
In no time at all, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints became a billion-dollar business. But, unlike other businesses, it issued no statements of its income and expenses, kept no books to inspect for possible malfeasance, and maintained no flow charts to show how the money is spent. The funds for the causes were deposited in the Vatican Bank or the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, only to disappear without a trace. In 2013, the problem of the missing money was brought to the attention of Pope Francis who attempted to address it by the creation of a new commission of inquiry into the Vatican’s finances: the Commission on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA).[iv] The new Commission’s attempt to obtain financial records from the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints was answered by this seraphic response: “The Causes of the Saints is not in possession of the requested documentation.”[v]
[i] Felician Foy, 1979 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1979), p. 140.
[ii] Gianluigi Nuzzi, Merchants in the Temple (New York: Henry Holt, 2015), p. 33.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid., pp. 24-25.
[v] Ibid., p. 32.
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