The Politics of Saint-Making

Two popes will become saints this week. On Sunday, Pope Francis will officially add to the Roman Catholic canon the names of two of his recent predecessors: Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. It would be better if he were not doing so.

Francis has had no choice in the case of John Paul II, the most popular pope ever in terms of the sheer numbers who flocked to see him during the 26-and-a-half years of his globe-trotting pontificate. He has been made a saint faster than anyone in history, in a process that began only days after his death in April 2005. The crowds gathered at his funeral chanted, “Santo Subito!” (“Make him a saint now!”). Normally five years have to pass before the procedure can begin. But the waiting period was waived by Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who wanted to consolidate the conservative legacy of the Polish pontiff. All that there was left for Francis to do was name the date for this weekend’s ceremony.