If the Catholic Church wants to see the growth in discernment that Pope Francis has called for in response to the sex abuse crisis, the institution must stop canonizing popes.
Proclaiming the sainthood of the men who are elected bishops of Rome by the conclave of cardinals is at the same time old and recent. Of the first 48 popes who died before the year 500, 47 are saints; half of them were martyrs. The canonization of popes who reigned in the following 15 centuries is rare.
The real change began in the 19th century with the "Romanization" or "papalization' of Catholicism and especially with the First Vatican Council (1869-1870) and its proclamation of papal primacy and infallibility. This produced a more pope-centered way of governing the church but also a devotion to the person of the pope.
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