Five Things I Know About the Saints

On Sunday they’ll be saints, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. The former was pope the first seven years of my life; he may have been pope when I made my first communion, but I’m not sure of that date. The latter was pope for much of the thirty-plus years I was away from the Church. Some are joyful about their canonizations; others are critical of what they did or didn’t do; others laugh at the very idea of saints and praying to dead people rather than to God.

Saints. Is it good or bad that J...