Richard McBrien looks at how Benedict XVI may act when it comes to the canonization of new saints. He also hopes that, in the future, the Church will recognize more types of people as examples of discipleship. JPII had continued the tradition of canonizing mainly martyrs, priests, and nuns, rather than people who live lives more like those of the vast majority of Catholics.

"The Quattrocchis were the first married couple to be beatified in five centuries. On the surface, their beatification represented a change in the Vatican’s approach to saint-making.

Here was a married couple who had raised four children during their nearly 50 years of marriage. On closer inspection, however, this was no ordinary marriage.

First, none of the four children ever married. Two became priests, one a nun, and the other daughter embraced a life of consecrated virginity.

The priest-sons later testified that, after 20 years of marriage, their parents moved into separate beds and lived as brother and sister for the next 26 years, until their father died in 1951.

There is no implied suggestion here that the Quattrocchis should not have been beatified. This column’s only concern is that the Church missed an opportunity in this instance to provide a more credible model of holiness for the overwhelming majority of Catholics who not only marry, but have children and grandchildren, and remain husband and wife in the fullest sense of the words for the entirety of their marriage."

Whole thing here.