Wednesday, June 25, 2008
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO ?
MORE than £250,000 a year could be raised by a campaign to create Scotland's first modern saint, the priest behind the plan said last night.
Father Ed Hone, who has raised thousands of pounds through innovative and sometimes controversial schemes, said that marketing Margaret Sinclair could be a lucrative source of funds for the poor and needy.
Ms Sinclair, a Scottish biscuit factory worker and trade unionist, used to worship at the Edinburgh church where Fr Ed is now based.
Efforts to have her canonised are already well advanced and, in March, Pope Benedict XVI said he would proceed with the beatification of Ms Sinclair if a miracle was officially ratified.
Fr Ed, known to some parishioners as "Father Cash", is part of a four-man team from the Redemptorists order currently based at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh's Cowgate. He said there was a huge global spin-off potential from DVDs, books and a "saint trail" based around Ms Sinclair.
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Additional quotes in the article make this story of canonization even more tawdry. How did we sink to this level? A clue might be provided in a reader's comments on the story:
With regard to your editorial (23 June) on Father Ed Hone's initiatives to raise cash through the canonisation of Margaret Sinclair,
to equate the Pharisaic criticism levelled against Jesus in His divine work of redeeming sinners with the genuine consternation of Catholics at an Edinburgh "gypsy priest" whose interaction with active homosexuals dissents from the moral teaching of
the Church on the necessity of conversion from sin for salvation is about as perverse a parallel as I have seen.
Is Benedict aware of this priest's defection to mammon, and does he go along with this scheme, one wonders? God help us!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
