POPE FRANCIS
Who seems a Really Progressive and Cool Guy
But no doubt subject to compromising with the same type of Political Bodies with which
BARACK OBAMA
Another Really Progressive and Cool Guy
Is subject to compromising,
[And let’s not over romanticize ether of these men — they are both fairly Political themselves!]
This Week
Has Canonized POPE JOHN PAUL II and POPE JOHN XXIII
As Saints.
Very Cool.

So, if I remember my Catholic Catechism correctly,
This means that they are both in Heaven.
And we Know that
We have Proof
Because they performed Two Whole Miracles, as required for Canonization.

POPE JOHN PAUL II cured a French Nun of Parkinson’s disease.
After he died.
SISTER MARIE SIMON-PIERRE was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2001,
and after JOHN PAUL II died in 2005,
she wrote down his name on a piece of paper and leapt out of bed the next morning.
And a Costa Rican Woman by the name of FLORIBETH MORA DIAZ had a cerebral aneurism,
but six years after POPE JOHN PAUL II died,
she had a picture of him at the foot of her bed, and it just went away.
Cool!

POPE JOHN XXIII only performed one Miracle —
And that one was after he died, as well.
A Nun by the name of CATERINA CAPITANI,
when she was 22 years old had an external fistula from her abdomen
and after the surgeon ordered her hospitalized,
a friend brought her a piece of the bedsheet that POPE JOHN XXIII died on —
A Relic, as it is called —
and then he appeared to her and made her well.
Very Cool.

The VATICAN of course has the right
to dispense with that requirement for the Second Miracle.
So, they let that one go
Overriding the requirement, if you will.
Overriding the requirement, if you won’t.

Apparently, the Catholic Church recognizes their own.
It’s kinda’ like the Oscars or the Tonys that way.
We enjoy it, but it sniffs of Political Agendas.
And SO Many Great People are Overlooked.

MOTHER THERESA was Beatified by POPE JOHN PAUL II in 2003,
Six Years after her death.
But the Good Lady still awaits that Declaration of Sainthood.
And JOHN and JP II just swept right in there ahead of her…
Beatification happens after only One Miracle,
and in 2002, five years after MOTHER THERESA’s death,
a woman in India awoke to find her abdominal tumor gone
after Missionaries of MOTHER THERESA’s order prayed to her…
The Church accepts this Miracle.
But she needs that Second Miracle.
And the Catholic Church can’t just be waiving those Requirements around willy nilly for just any Woman.

And So… Two New Saints!
Both Popes
Declared by One of their Own

I have never known any Popes personally.
Yet I have personally known Countless Saints.
A Lot of them Women.
And Most of them, neither Popes
Nor even Catholic.

All of those Brave and Courageous Men and Women who held the hands
of those who were dying during the peak of the AIDS Crisis
All Saints
Every One
And there is no need for dispensation of Required Miracles.
I counted more than Two Miracles Every Day
From Each of them.
I was there.

And all those Mothers I have known
Including my own
They Create Miracles.
The first Miracle is the Child they Create
And from there, it takes anywhere from Two to Several Thousand Miracles each day to raise a child
But in a Pontificate where only Men get to decide who’s a Saint,
They might forget this.

Teachers… They seem to create Miracles
More than Two, that I’ve witnessed.

Writers…
As any Writer will tell you
Every Word is a Miracle.

Poor People seem to Create a Lot of Miracles
In Cultures where Capitalism has run amuck,
It would seem the only way for them to Survive.

Those Hip Hop Kids on the Train…
I’ve seen a few of them Create Miracles.

I have known
Mothers of Down Syndrome Children who’ve made Extraordinarily Courageous Early Intervention Efforts with their Children
Researching the Best Ways & Means available
Before there was an Internet to Research it all with…

Gay Men and Lesbians who have Co-Parented Such Amazing Children…

People who’ve given up their Corporate Security to go work
in the Amazon Rainforest to Improve the Lives of Indigenous Peoples
To Educate them

People who Bring Joy to People Every Day — Even to Strangers.
My Partner Creates Miracles Every Day through the Sacrament of Hospitality amidst the TreeHouses of the Pacific NorthWest… He understands Hospitality toward others in the Biblical Sense.
The Sin of Sodom, of course, as those who read the Bible a bit more carefully know, was Inhospitality, not, as some would have us Believe, Sex between two Men — and perhaps those in Rome when they are not too busy canonizing themselves,
could use a refresher course in that.
The Message of the Book of Sodom is that Hospitality is Sacred.
And a Miracle.

People who bring the Miracle of Color into the Lives of Others.
There’s a Lady named SARK, and she creates Miracles with Crayons…
Visit SARK Here

I know someone who moved to Africa
and replaced the Blades in the Sacred Tribal Instruments used for Circumcision
so that African People could honor their Sacred Tradition
of using these Sacred Implements for their Ceremonies
Coming up with the idea of replacing just the blade within the sacred instrument
helped to curb the spread of AIDS on a Continent where Two-Thirds of the Population is threatened to be wiped out by the Disease.
And then he went there, and replaced as many as he could find with his own hands — installing a disposable blade system within each one.

I know a Man who got in a Car Accident and died three times on the table
And a Woman who made him well.

I know a Young Man who went to the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya and set up a Drama Group for poor Villagers to Express themselves, to fulfill their wish that their voices be heard outside of Dadaab.
Visit the Dadaab Theater Project Here
I also know his Teacher, who had the Courage to follow him there,
and is there Even Now.
I know a Woman who runs a parish Church in Manhattan and heads up a Global Justice Mission around the World, travelling to Jamaica, India, Kuala Lampur — around the Globe demanding that those who would persecute LGBT people Stop — she has stood against Angry Crowds wanting to burn down Gay People’s Houses — Creating the Miracle of Peace out of Adversity.
Visit MCCNY and the Global Justice Mission Here

I know a Woman who serves as a Hospital Chaplain
who Comforts the Dying.
And to her, the daily practice of her Extraordinary Courage —
A Courage which most of us only hope we will have
for the few times in our lives when we shall need it —
feels as natural as eating, sleeping and breathing.

I know a woman who made my college education possible.
She has mentored and supported me for over 35 years.
I am one of a legion of students over many generations
for whom she has performed such Miracles
She continues to work in Education to this Day

All of these people
And So Many More
Create and Perform Miracles Every Day!

And something else worth noting
From a humble man who has witnessed Countless Miracles in his Lifetime…

True Miracles are not so neat and pat.
True Miracles do not happen by Ghosts who visit through portraits and heal people
Or maybe they do
What the Hell do I know

But the Miracles I have seen are MESSY.
They are Dirty and they Require Struggle
And they Cost
People Expend themselves
They don’t just drop down from Heaven like a Tidy Little Ghost
Wave their Saintly Wand
And then pop back up.

That is not how it Works!
People Toil and Strain.
It drains their Essence and Kicks their Ass!
They are Weary — Enervated!
And they don’t get Rewards for Being Good.
They Rarely Get Acknowledged.
And they Hurt.
And They Do Good and Kind things Anyway.

Because they are SAINTS.
Not because Some Pontificate of Men declared them such
But Because their Souls are Immense
And their Hearts are Boundlessly Loving

And Many of them are Jewish
And Muslim
And Agnostic
And other forms of Non-Christian People

But they Exemplify the Teachings of JESUS CHRIST more than any of you Men decked out in the Fabulous White Garments with all the Jewels and the Boss Car.

Maybe some day History will reveal what’s going on there
With the POPE EMERITUS, BENEDICT,
Formerly CARDINAL RATZINGER,
A Hitler Youth who grew up to persecute Marginalized Groups through the power of the Vatican,
Who was elected in the briefest Papal Conclave in History
And who toured throughout Africa preaching against the Use of Condoms in a Country where 25 Million People are Living with HIV/AIDS.
Who toured the World when Expert Analysts declared his visit was unlikely to do any good as he publicly refused to meet with anyone who disagreed with him.
Whose furtive ousting was as mysterious as his hasty election.
And who now enjoys retirement in a lavish apartment in Rome,
His resignation shortly after the VatiLeaks Scandal erupted,
For which his loyal Butler, PAOLO GABRIELE, publicly became the Fall Guy
and was quietly pardoned shortly after.

Maybe someday History will tell us what happened there
With POPE JOHN PAUL I
Who immediately after his Election to the Papacy
Announced extensive Policies for Liberal Reform in the Church
And then mysteriously died after only 33 days in office.

These are not the People who will decide Saints for me.
I have Witnessed Countless Miracles
From People they will never know
And who will never know them.

And here’s Something Else:
Everyone goes to Heaven.
There is No Hell except for that which you can create in your own mind.
It doesn’t exist.
And So, you are Correct that POPE JOHN XXIII and POPE JOHN PAUL II are Saints.
And although you have yet to acknowledge it
in the Circus of Male Ghetto Buffoonery and Corruption on your Palace Hill,
MOTHER THERESA is in HEAVEN as well.
And So is Everyone who has Ever Died.
And So shall we All Be.

THE COURSE IN MIRACLES says:
“Heaven is Here, There is No Other Place;
Heaven is Now, There is no other Time.”
I wonder if You who dole out SaintHoods to Yourselves
would be willing to take a moment and mediate on that?

By your own theology, JESUS Died to Save All People.
Therefore, All People are Already Saved.

Today is ALL SAINTS DAY!
Let us Celebrate!
Ahhh Men!

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