Pope Sixtus V established the Catholic Church’s office for scrutinizing candidates for beatification and canonization in 1587. ¹ The official who was tasked with this duty came to be known as the Advocatus Diaboli, or “Devil’s Advocate,” though his official title is Promotor Fidei, “Promoter of the Faith.” This position was all but eliminated in 1983 by John Paul II with his apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister, which drastically reformed the canonization process. Prior to this, a canon lawyer would typically be tasked with arguing against the candidate. Bishop Fulton Sheen, whose beatification in the Conciliar Church is almost certainly a precursor to his canonization ² , will not have a Devil’s Advocate to oversee his case. This means that no one has been tasked to meticulously scrutinize his flaws — public and private, no matter how slight — in light of traditional Catholic teaching. Given that something is good when it is good in every respect, and bad when it is bad in any respect ³ , any candidate with a provable and substantiated defect, much less many, should not be honored by the Catholic Church as beatus, “blessed.” In the case of a canonization, the Holy Ghost would indeed prevent such a thing from ever occurring. ⁴

Originally published in Integrity Magazine. Read original article

Original Tags: Church History, News, Vatican II, Fulton Sheen, Saints, Spirituality, Traditional Catholicism