Letter of February 10, 2006

"The Church Offers - Not Solutions - But Saints"
Most Reverend Carl F. Mengeling, Bishop of Lansing

The quote in the title is from one of the great theologians and spiritual giants of our time. He is Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

He and the whole Church were blessed in the 27 years of John Paul II as he ‘offered SAINTS and BLESSED’S’ to us and the world. Declaring ‘Blessed’s’ and ‘Saints’ and placing them before the followers of Christ was one of the most significant gifts of John Paul II.

The statistics for those 27 years are extraordinary and an inspiration toward holiness. Pope John Paul presided at 147 Beatification Rites. In them he declared 1,342 people ‘Blessed’. He presided at 51 Canonization Rites. In them he declared 483 people ‘Saints’.

In his seven months, Pope Benedict is in sync with John Paul II, continuing to gift the Church with ‘Blessed’s’ and ‘Saints’. He approved 5 Beatifications. In those rites, 27 people were declared ‘Blessed’. Cardinal Jose Martins, Prefect for Causes of Saints presided. Pope Benedict presided at one Canonization Rite. He declared 5 people ‘Saints’.

In many of his prolific writings, the Holy Father, teaches frequently about the initial significance and role of Saints and Blessed’s in the life of the Church. Here are some of his insights:

"As Jesus is the ‘Faithful Witness’, so saints filled with the grace of God, witness among and before the community, which is itself a testimony to the love of God."

"The Saints are the true, normative majority by which we orient ourselves -

 They translate the divine into the human; eternity into time.

 They never abandon us in pain and solitude.

 They accompany us at the hour of our death".

"We honor the saints for their holiness - a luminous likeness to Jesus. They chose to lose everything and give their lives to confers unwavering forth in Christ. Their great love of God left no room for cowardly self-love, expediency or compromise."

Our Holy Father exhorts us - "Set the light of Saints on a lamp stand, so that we do not stumble in the dark of our own making. By the light of the saints which is really the light of Christ in the world, we see the Light."