Mark Knows It All

So I was having lunch with a friend of mine the other day who is a non-Catholic. Stories abounded on television about the beatification of John Paul II, one of the most popular popes in my lifetime, if not for hundreds of years. My friend asked me: “Why would people pray to a dead pope?” I was taken aback. I am a lapsed Catholic who considers himself to be an Episcopalian while currently attending a Lutheran church…don’t ask. I just assumed everybody knew why people would pray to a dead pope…or any of the saints for that matter. “What is it that you expect him to do?” he queried further. Being raised Catholic, I never questioned the saints. I explained to my friend that we don’t pray to the saints for a direct act. We pray to the saints to intercede on our behalf with God. “Can’t you do that directly yourself?” he further inquired. He got me there. The Lutheran in me began to come out. A few days later, I talked to another Catholic friend about the conversation. My friend said that I n