Dear Filomena, There are a few business principles that are applicable to the saint "business":
1. No Credit: "In God we trust; rest strictly cash." If you want something, you gotta pay for it. 2.No service without commission: Even canonization has hidden costs. I am given to understand that US$1,000,000 that you quoted, does not take into account the inflation and the premium on 'coloured' merchandize[not virgin material like pure driven snow....white!].If dress circle tickets are assured in heaven, quite a few smugglers,builders and politicians in Goa/of Goan origin would be willing to invest in sainthood. Right now they waste the money in donations for construction of churches,parish complexes,sepulchres,etc for local benefits/honour in the local parish. Our parish is now raising money for the cemetry. No receipts so far.Refence to receipts was deleted from the appeal[which ,unfortunately,I drafted.] All good catholics are supposed to contribute: only 'protestants' ask embarassing questions. 3.Peter's Principle: "Work expands to occupy all available time." The Postulator is busy, please try after some time. The good news is that a new postulator has been found for the 'cause' of Venerable Fr.Agnelo D'Souza,SFX[ indigenous priest of a native order....and sainthood is a tall order].Fr.Antonio Marazzo is a Redemptorist. Hope he will redeem the name of the poor local 'father' who happens to be my Godfather/Padrinho/Padrin/Podon/Dhom-Baap...and I do not even pray to him although he became 'venerable' on 11 November,1986. Fr.Tony Fernandes,SFX, is the new Vice-Postulator who has to document the virtue of his departed predecessor priest. Hopefully, Fr. Marazzo will not say " Mar zok" to the cause----he is the fourth postulator for Fr. Agnelo ,who died on 20 November,1928 and is a saint in the waiting for 75 years today. Anyone for his diamond jubilee at Pilar?[ Information courtesy press release from the Society of Pilar, opinions my own.] Viva Goa. Miguel Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 13:55:38 -0800 (PST) From: Filomena Giese [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Goanet]Re: The saint business Dear Mervyn, There are millions of Christians who believe, as you seem to, that we can pray to God directly, without the interventions of "saints", and especially without the interventions of "saints" canonized by the Catholic Church by putting simple, ordinary folk like you and me through tortuous hoops of legislation and a huge outlay of money - it has been calculated that by the time a canonization takes place these days, we are talking of more than a million U.S. dollars! And, no amount of pleading by the Archbishops and Bishops of India that Joseph Vaz be canonized for the Jubilee as a symbol of faith and courage under persecution needed for today's world got him a canonization. It keeps us us on our knees, praying for favors from white folks Filomena > --- Mervyn Lobo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The question I have is, do we really need 'official' saints? What seems to be the problem here? Is God getting more prayers than s/he can handle? Does God need 'official' assistants to handle all the volume? --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.530 / Virus Database: 325 - Release Date: 10/22/2003 ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
