Sao Paulo - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday gave Brazil its first saint, canonising Friar Antonio de Sant'Ana Galvao, a Franciscan monk still credited with miracle cures nearly 200 years after his death.
Friar Galvao, who lived from 1739 to 1822, founded monasteries and convents throughout Brazil but is best known today because of his reputed healing powers.
A first miracle attributed to Friar Galvao and recognised by the Church occurred at the start of the 19th century when a patient was cured of kidney stones after he had her swallow three small pieces of paper on which he had written prayers for divine intercession. source...
Is this not an example of some VERY backward, medieval thinking?
Granted, Friar Galvao and the rest of the world probably had no idea how to cure kidney stones at the time, but here we have a world leader at present who sees fit to recognize a charlatan as an example for all of us to live our lives by. WTF!!!
A saint. Pope Benedict has brought before the Catholic community (his constituency) a man who clearly had no grounds to be set up upon a pedestal.
It's very simple to see through this. Politics. After all, that is what religion is about anyway. Let us look to the religious climate in Brazil. Millions of people have been drawn away from the Catholic church and embraced more evangelical protestant churches. It was a political move on the pope's part in order to draw attention to Catholicism in Brazil. To motivate the masses, so to speak.
Anybody who think religion is not political in nature can eat my shorts!
