The Pope Named 6 New Saints
2004-06-29, 11:06 a.m.

Entry Number Two today.

The pope named 6 new saints. Among them is Gianna Beretta Molla. A woman, a physician, who at age 39 died 2 weeks after giving birth. She�d been told that if she continued her pregnancy, she could die, due to a tumor in her uterus. Pope John Paul 2 said, �May our era rediscover, by the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, the pure, chaste and fertile beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine calling.� What the hell does that mean, anyway? So she�s a saint because she had a baby she left motherless and left her husband a widower? Right. I think she�s a woman who had a hard decision to make and made it to the best of her ability, but hardly a saint. Countless women make that decision every year. But, I have nothing to say about who gets canonized and the pope isn�t interested in what an ex-Catholic has to say.

I�ve been reading Dan Brown�s �Angels & Demons.� Have you read it? I�m only partway through it, but it�s about this �ancient brotherhood� whose sole mission is to eradicate the Catholic Church.

I know there are some really good, spiritual people who become priests or nuns. But I can�t believe that, as a person rises in power in the Church, that the power doesn�t corrupt them. I think that it might be a good thing if the Catholic Church were to cease to exist. What would happen to all those Catholics who don�t think for themselves and just do/believe/think whatever their priest tells them to do/believe/think? What would they then do/believe/think?