英国新闻听力 天主教堂应停止追封圣徒（在线收听）

Earlier this week I took a trip to Durham Cathedral and the tomb of St Cuthbert, a great saint of the north east, and a much-loved man who was variously a hermit, monk and bishop. His simple tomb, illuminated by a few flickering candles, seemed a world away from the hoo-ha in Rome over publication of a book by investigative journalist Gabriele Nuzzi which details yet more financial scandals in the Vatican.

You might have heard on this programme yesterday about the efforts of Pope Francis to clean up the financial mismanagement of the Vatican and about Nuzzi’s revelations of certain people resisting any change.

Among the areas the Pope is tackling are the Catholic Church’s saint-making practices. While the Church on the one hand has been diligent in recent years about who it canonizes, this has led to large fees allegedly being paid to expert witnesses during pre-canonisation enquiries. Even more disturbing are Nuzzi’s claims of huge sums being spent on gifts for prelates attending canonisations in Rome, and the lack of a proper accounting paper trail.

The simplest option might be to pull the plug on the whole saint-making business. After all, being a saint doesn’t depend on canonisation – that’s just the formal recognition of someone who has led as good a life as possible, despite all their faults and foibles. But what official recognition does do is satisfy people’s need for heroes, for people we can look up to, as examples of those who loved God and others. They encourage people when they struggle to believe and are signposts on the journey of discipleship. The saints might include the great founders of orders of friars, like Dominic and Francis, but they are also ordinary people like the Italian doctor and mother Gianna Beretta Molla, or someone like Maximilian Kolbe who readily gave up his life in Auschwitz so that someone else might live.

Making saints might be a multi-million pound business but it needn’t be. Men and women like Cuthbert used to become saints by public acclamation, honoured by those who treasured their example. That might be a way forward if Pope Francis struggles with his clean-up in Rome. Here in Britain we might acclaim Margaret Sinclair. The daughter of an Edinburgh dustman, she left school at 14, worked as a French polisher and was a trade union activist before joining a convent in London’s Notting Hill and dying of tuberculosis at the age of 25. There is no grandeur about her, just a very ordinary life extraordinarily well-lived – an ideal hero for our times.

本周早些时候，我参观了杜伦大教堂和圣卡斯伯特墓地，他是东北部一个备受爱戴的伟大的圣徒，他既是一位隐修者，也是一位僧侣，还是一位牧师。他的墓碑非常简单，只有几根摇曳的蜡烛装饰。在调查性新闻记者Gabriele Nuzzi编纂的详细披露梵蒂冈财经丑闻的书籍出版之际，他的墓碑看上去似乎是远离罗马喧嚣的独立世界。

你或许收听了昨天的节目，了解了教皇方济各如何努力肃清梵蒂冈的经营不善，以及Nuzzi披露的某些人如何抗拒任何改变。

教皇努力想要处理的一个问题就是天主教堂制造圣徒的行为。一方面，教堂近年来在追封圣徒方面非常勤勉，这也导致专业监督追封圣徒前的调查工作需要大量的费用。更混乱的是，Nuzzi披露，大量金钱被花费在为参加罗马追封圣徒仪式的高级教师购买礼物上，而且该过程缺乏恰当的会计资料追踪。

最简单的选择或许是终止整个与追封圣徒有关的行业。毕竟，作为圣徒不需要追封——这只是正式认可某个人尽可能度过了完美的一生，而不管他所有的错误和瑕疵。但是官方认可所做的就是满足人们对英雄的需求，对可以仰望的人的需求，作为敬爱上帝和他人的表率。当人们失去信仰的时候，他们鼓励人们，作为信徒们前进路上的路标。圣徒们或许包括伟大的创始人一般的修道士，比如多米尼克，比如方济各，但是也包括凡人，比如意大利医生和母亲詹纳·贝雷塔·莫拉那样的人，或者像马西米兰·科尔比那样在奥斯威辛愿意牺牲自己的生命拯救他人的人。

追封圣徒或许是价值数百万英镑的大生意，但是没有必要。Cuthbert那样的许多男女通过公众的喝彩成为圣徒，受到珍视他们的榜样作用的人的尊重。如果教皇方济各能够继续坚持在罗马的肃清工作，那么一定会取得一定的进步。在英国，我们应该称赞Margaret Sinclair。她是爱丁堡一位清洁工的女儿。她14岁就离开学校，成为一名法国抛光师，也曾经是工会积极分子，后来加入伦敦诺丁山一个女修道会，25岁时因肺结核去世。她没有什么伟大之处，只是过好了平凡的生活——但她是我们的时代最理想的英雄。