Shifting Holy Ground

I was not going to like Michael Higgins’s new book, Stalking the Holy: The Pursuit of Saint-Making. I am a Catholic theologian interested in Catholic life, thought and spirituality, but the saint-making bureaucracy at the Vatican did not interest me at all. Ronald Knox, a well-known British Catholic intellectual, once said, “When you travel on an ocean liner, do not go near the engine room.” The internal diplomacy of Vatican City, with its corridors and connections, does not inspire faith. At the same time, I am willing to admit that the Church’s central administration cannot tolerate that local communities, relying simply on their own judgement, declare their heroes to be saints. The local acclamation of sainthood works well in some cases—a good example is the popular veneration of Oscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of El Salvador—but without supervision we might end up with sinister saints, ardent Catholics such as Franco or Pinochet, who have defended Catholic...