Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why

A pioneering work of investigative journalism penetrates the Vatican to explain the canonization process and describes the political in-fighting, the medical questions, and the costs of canonization

The Vatican allowed Woodward, a veteran Vatican observer and Newsweek journalist, unprecedented access to the persons and documentation involved in canonization. He traces the evolution of the process through two millennia, concentrating on recent declarations of sainthood and pending cases. He reports on a little-noticed change in 1983 in which a historical-critical review replaced the former adversarial debate between the "Devil's" and the petitioners' advocates. Another change was in the criteria for martyrdom to include victims of Nazism. He ends with an eloquent plea on behalf of Cardinal Newman, whose beatification has made little progress. Intriguing, thoughtful, and intelligently critical.
- Richard S. Watts, San Bernardino Cty. Lib., Cal.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.