Cardinal Newman...

Prince Charles has been invited to attend one of the more unusual events in the history of the Catholic church. On Sunday, in St Peter’s Square, Rome, Cardinal John Newman (1801-1890), will become the first English person born since the 17th century to be declared a saint.

Canonisation isn’t just a matter of plucking an individual out of the chorus line and installing him or her into the heavenly choir; there are procedures to follow and strict criteria to meet. The first saints were all martyrs, honouring their willingness to die for their beliefs. After the 4th century CE, those who lived particularly pious lives might also qualify for sainthood. By the 10th century, Pope John XV had developed an official canonization process. These days a candidate for sainthood is first venerated, then beatified. If there is proof that he or she is responsible for two posthumous miracles, then sainthood can follow. It all takes time.

A file on Newman was first opened in 1958. In 1991, he was proclaimed ‘venerable’. He was beatified in 2010, after Jack Sullivan, an American cleric attributed his recovery from a spinal cord disorder to Newman. The second miracle involved the unexplained healing of a pregnant American woman from a life-threatening diagnosis. These ‘miracles’ were considered - and rubber-stamped - by a panel of theologians and the cardinals of the Congregation for Cause of Saints. It’s hard to imagine a more egregious waste of clerical time by a cabal of pious men who were presumably bright enough to dress themselves and tie their own shoe-laces.

Not the best shot I've ever taken, but, hey, it sold...