If Mary Virginia Merrick is to become Washington's first saint, her
devotees will need to navigate the convoluted canonization process and
produce hard evidence that praying to her has had miraculous results.
Post staff writer April Witt, whose article "Looking for Miracles" appeared in
yesterday's Washington Post Magazine, was online Monday, April 12 at 1 p.m. ET to field
questions and comments about Merrick and the road to Catholic sainthood.
Witt is a Magazine staff writer.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
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April Witt: Good Afternoon. I hope those of you who celebrate Easter had a good one yesterday. I think sainthood is an interesting topic for not just the day after Easter, but a time when Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion" is generating controversy and dominating religious coverage in the mainstream press. To me, people like Mary Virginia Merrick raise this question: If you belive the Easter story, how then are you supposed to live your life?
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Baltimore, Md.:
This article sums up, in a nutshell, why I am no longer a practising Catholic. All that minutiae has nothing whatsoever to do with whether a person is a worthy candidate for sainthood. Ms. Merrick sounds like an exceptional person whose life and words can stand on their own regardless of whether or not she is canonized.
April Witt: Some volunteers in the organization Merrick founded would agree with you. So would followers of the late great Dorothy Day, who are divided on whether or not anyone should bother trying to have her officially recognized by the Catholic Church as a saint. Day, who founded the Catholic Worker movement, once famously once said: "Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed that easily." I think her point was that every believer is supposed to love and serve others - not just the special few the church designates as saints.
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Arlington, Va.:
I am not Catholic, so please forgive my ignorance: why the step between beatified and sainthood? What does it mean to be beatified?
April Witt: I think there are plenty of Catholics who wonder the same thing. In fact, I'm quite certain there are at least a few officials in Rome who think beatification is an extraneous step and the church should do away with it. As complicated as it is, the church's current canonization process is simpler than it used to be. The church used to require proof of two miracles for beatification, one step short of official sainthood, then another two miracles for sainthood. Now, of course, the church requires just one miracle for each. Mother Teresa is only beatified at the moment. Does that make her any less holy than if she had officially attained sainthood?
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Washington, D.C.:
In your story you state that in order for someone to be sainted "followers must deliver posthumous miracles able to withstand legal and medical scrutiny." Have their been cases where medical science of today can explain documented "miracles" of the past? Is there even a process for un-sainting someone?
April Witt: That's a good question. The church has deemed that some of the "saints" informally selected by public acclimation in the early centuries of Christianity really don't' belong in the official list of saints. The church has deemed that the stories told of their heroic virtue were legend, not fact. But I don't think the church has any mechanism for revoking sainthood for people officially canonized by Rome. It's certainly logical to think that a cure that seemed like a miracle 300 years ago, might today be easily explainable. But the church doesn't go back and revisit those old cases on the basis of new scientific information.
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Little Rock, Ark.:
When did the Roman Catholic Church begin canonizing saints? Isn't canonization simply a process of entering the names of candidates that the church is persuaded to be holy into an official list? The candidate is, in effect, already a saint and is not made a saint by church action.
April Witt:
The first saint officially canonized by Rome was in 993 A.D. I think you are right that the candidate is, in effect, already a saint and the church action merely recognizes that. My understanding of the miracles, for example, is that they are supposed to be signs that the mere mortals who run the church have made a correct assessment of an individual's saintliness.
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Falls Church, Va.:
This article is why most practicing Catholics are ticked off at the press's portrayal of their church. Your article came across as mocking its subjects for their hope. It is doubtful you would be so disdainful of another religion.
April Witt: It's very interesting to me that you viewed this article as mocking people's faith and hope. I wonder if that has more to do with your personal view of the press rather than the story itself. I ask that because I happen to have a strong personal interest in religion. And I was very specifically moved by the people in this story who were hoping for a miracle.Someone asked me whether I thought Joey Peacock's back was healed as a result of a miracle. My response was, that's not for me to say. I enjoy life's mysteries too much to come to any firm conclusions on that. But I am absolutely certain that the Peacock family's faith and hope in a tough and cynical world is a miracle.
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Anonymous:
What is your spiritual background and how did it influence the way you researched and wrote this story?
April Witt: I happen to be a practicing Roman Catholic. Both personally and as a journalist I'm fascinated by what people believe and why. Twice in my 20-odd years as a reporter I've chosen to write about religion as my full-time beat. Last year, I spent several months in Afghanistan as a reporter for The Post. One of my favorite experiences there was getting into long theological discussions with the Muslims I met. One of my favorite assignments ever in journalism was covering a weeklong silent Buddhist retreat. The fact that religion is important to me, helps me understand why it's so important to the believers of all stripes whe I've interviewed and written about.
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Bethesda, Md.:
It is my understanding that the quest for saitnhood for Ms. Merrick is being funded through donation requests made by The Society throughout the country. Doesn't that affect the tax-exempt status of The Christ Child Society and call into question the true purpose of this oranization, which has cut back on its other programs,including the camp referenced in the article, in order to concentrate on the sainthood push? Was any of this explored during the researching and writing of the article?
April Witt: Your question contains some mistaken assumptions. The Christ Child officials I interviewed said that they were raising money separately to try to canonize Merrick - not using general funds. My article says that when they sold land recently they donated the money to be used to build a new center for poor kids in Anacostia.
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Alexandria, Va.:
Do you think the word "miracle" is losing its meaning? Throughout your article I see references to a change of heart as a "miracle" and peaceful looks as "miracles" and I just don't get it.
April Witt: That's a fair point. I think miracles are probably in the eye of the beholder. For Diane Scalise, who prayed over a dying and suffering friend, seeing a look of peace come over that woman's face was a kind of quiet miracle. Some people, the more grateful among us, think it's a miracle to be breathing and walking each day. Albert Einstein said: "Either everything is a miracle or nothing is." I am going to end this chat on that thought. Thanks for joining me everyone.
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Washington, D.C.:
I am a practicing Catholic, and had an entirely different reaction to your article than some of those who've already posted. First, I think it is one of the great strengths of the Catholic Church that it is ponderous -- unlike so many institutions, it is not swayed by the passions of the moment, or even the passions of a single age. Second, I was really struck by how balanced your article was -- I guess what someone takes away from it depends on what they bring to it.
April Witt: That's right. In life, faith, and newspaper reading one tends to take away from it what you bring to it. Bye.
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