Lately, there has been talk of proposing the late G.K.Chesterton( 1874-1936), creator of the much loved "Father Brown" series of detective novels and Catholic convert(as I am myself) for beatification and canonization.
To put it mildly, I have my reservations- and NOT just because of his reported racist and anti-Semitic views( to be fair, such views were commonplace in certain sections of turn of the century Western society-American as well as British- before the rise of Nazism and the subsequent Holocaust,as individuals as different as H.P.Lovecraft and the late William F.Buckley make clear- full disclosure I am a big fan of Lovecraft in particular, see his "Wikipedia" entry), it is simply that many of the qualifications for sainthood seem to be absent- heroic charity as well as piety.
True, G.K.Chesterton came out against the Nazi policy of oppression and persecution of German Jewry before his death, but I think Pope Francis would be wise to bin G.K.Chesterton's proposed nomination for sainthood!
Anybody else think as I do?
Terry
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