Pope John 23 and Pope John Paul 2 are to be canonized today and they will then be joining the college of saints. I do not know whether they will have to wait outside the college doors until the canonization procedures are over. Anyway it might be interesting to have a look at some of their future college-mates.
1. Emperor Charlemagne: He ruled the Holy roman empire for over four decades and was responsible for converting the Saxons to Christianity. In the process he massacred some 4500 Saxons. But that has not prevented the Church from declaring him as a saint to be emulated. In contrast the Roman emperor Nero massacred only less than 900 Christians. However Nero is depicted by the church as one of the worst of tyrants in human history.
2. Pope Urban 2: It was he that set in motion the Crusades in 1095 which resulted in untold misery and bloodshed. Pope John Paul 2 who is one of the two to be canonized today apologized for the cruelties perpetrated by the Crusaders and has said that the Crusades were a dark chapter in the history of the church. But he did not bother to take Pope Urban 2 off the list of saints as he did to several saints like St.George, St. Sebastian, St. Christopher, St. Brigitte et al. I wonder what Pope John Paul 2 and Pope Urban 2 will have to talk about when they come across each other in the College of saints.
3. Another thing for which Pope John Paul 2 apologized was the crimes perpetrated by the various inquisitions. It was one of these inquisitions that burned Giordano Bruno at the stakes for saying that the earth is round and that it goes round the Sun, both of which theories went against the church's teachings that the earth is flat and that the Sun goes around the earth. Consequently Bruno has been declared as the first martyr for science. The Inquisition which condemned Bruno to the stakes was presided over by the Cardinal Bellarmin who too has been declared by the church as a saint to be emulated. As such Pope Paul 2 will in all probability come across Bellarmin whom the former condemned by condemning the inquisitions. Will Pope John Paul 2 and Cardinal Bellarmin be avoiding each other in the college of saints or will they be slugging it out in heaven?
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