By Julius Calasicas
Chuckles echoed in Buckley Auditorium, Thursday, when Kenneth Woodward began the Zahm Lecture with a joke.
"Do you believe in God?" he asked and answered, "No. But Mary is his mother."
Woodward, who served as religion editor of Newsweek for 38 years, gave a speech entitled, "Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why" in contingent with the beatification of The Rev. Basil Moreau, C.S.C., the founder of the Holy Cross Order. Woodward has written a book "Making Saints," and is currently a Newsweek contributing editor.
His credentials have made him a hot ticket item for many of the Catholics at the university, and his humor took some audience members by surprise.
"Most American Catholics agree on one saint: their own mother. Very few mention their dad," Woodward said. "In Catholicism, God is the father, while the mother is a saint - this sentiment is not often recognized."
Throughout the lecture, Woodward jokingly used Brian Doyle, editor of Portland Magazine, as a candidate for sainthood instead of Moreau, to lightly describe the process.
According to Woodward, a key component to be recognized as an official saint is death.
"It'd be a pain in the ass to have a living saint," Woodward said. "You need a community of people who believed Doyle as holy after his death. The entire process is like a trial."
Once named "venerable," candidates for sainthood require proof of a posthumous miracle before being dubbed "Blessed" (as a sign of God). The miracles do not have to be magical and could be moral, as in the case of Venerable Matt Talbot who overcame alcoholism.
When asked for evidence of Moreau's sainthood and miracle, Woodward said that he was not familiar with this case.
Margaret Hogan, the executive director of the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture, thought Woodward could have been more academically engaging.
"I would have liked to have heard the specifics of the beatification of Blessed Moreau," Hogan said. "While his humor was refreshing, Woodward is a serious scholar and I'm used to the more scholarly side of him. He is a very good, sharp thinker."
Currently, Woodward is working on a memoir that is not about him. "50 Years of American Religion and Culture" will look at how religion has been embedded in American culture for half a century, including topics such as religion in politics and changing patterns in family life.
