US Catholic has a report on Pope Francis’s efforts to clean up the Vatican Bank. It comments that “Francis has repeatedly railed against corruption, and his reforms at the bank are quickly becoming a test case for those efforts”. Fair enough (and a touch belated given the Vatican’s repeated attacks on wicked financiers in recent years), but then came this:
This week, [the pope] took another, less controversial step in that direction, calling for a “spending review” that includes settling on a cap for expenses tied to the canonization causes of would-be saints. In the past, critics charged that figures backed by well-financed supporters usually became saints more quickly than their more meagerly financed counterparts.
One learns something new every day. Amazing.
Fairly common knowledge among Catholics. Religious orders, for example, can put a lot of time, money, and effort into getting their founders canonized. Said founder may or may not be any holier than your beloved great-aunt, but nobody’s pushing her cause in Rome.