Back in '13 Bishop Peter Doyle opened an investigation to see if GK Chesterton might be a saint. Last month
he said no. "Chesterton lacks a “cult” of local devotion, the lack of a “pattern of personal spirituality” that could be discerned through his writing, and charges of anti-Semitism in his writing." ... "Doyle praised “Chesterton’s goodness and his ability to evangelize” but said he could not open the cause at this time."
Oh well. That would have been a very interesting exploration of what sainthood means--and I think a useful one.
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
2 comments:
Well, it's their house, so they can decorate it how they want. But it does seem short sighted that a person who repented of an anti-semitism that was mild for its time and tried to make amends should be faulted for that by a church that believes in forgiveness and "time for amendment of life."
I have a feeling that "there is no cult" was the killer factor/excuse, and the other reasons were scraped together.
He would have made a rather interesting, not to say jarring, addition. They've been starting to recognize more married and non-clergy saints lately, but Chesterton was not an obvious exemplar of self-denial. I don't think that a show-stopper. Devotion to your calling seems like it might be worth recognizing.
They say saints are supposed to have exhibited "heroic virtue." Standing up for truth in a hostile environment should count for something.
They recognize "doctors of the church;" maybe they can come up with an equivalent category of "apostles of common sense" or something.
Or maybe they figured that statues of him would cost double.
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