Blue Bloods and Saint of Mars: The Problems of Canonization

For my latest mystery novel, Saint of Mars, I researched the process of canonization. Since my novel takes place in the future, I didn't rely only on the current process--for instance, I brought back the Devil's Advocate. 

However, the novel raises some of the same issues that currently attend the process. One of the most interesting is the problem of a flawed saint versus a perfect one. Is the entire life the raison d'etre? Or specific events/miracles? How much time should investigators spend explaining away potential problems? (The need to "explain away" tends to expand when the individual under consideration had lots and lots of opinions and bothered to write them all down.)

In Saint of Mars, one of the detectives, Lider, states:

“Saints are supposed to be exemplars. But they also need to rise above the flock, stand out, change lives, change history. Heroic virtue. I think Rhys has it but he isn’t exactly—what’s the term Massey uses?—kosher. Anyone who stands out is going to be the kind of person who also makes mistakes.” 

A fantastic Blue Bloods episode, "Leap of Faith" addresses this issue. Frank is asked by the Church (meaning, the Catholic Church) to look into the history of a local priest who is up for sainthood. Frank is unsettled by the request since the priest was an "activist" priest during the Vietnam War. But he follows through to the point where he ends up speaking to a fugitive of a bombing who was helped by the priest to flee to Canada. 

Some reviewers criticize this event, arguing that Frank would arrest the guy. I disagree. Frank is honorable--to his bones. He gave his word that the man, now several decades older, would be given "sanctuary." He doesn't break his word. 

What I particularly love about the episode is that Frank tackles the issue of "who makes a good saint?" Is it the righteous person who never did anything even slightly outside the pale (as Mike says in Last Man Standing, "Are we just going to name things after boring people?")? Or is the better saint the flawed, complex man or woman who tried to do the right thing? Whom do people relate to best? Who is easier to pray through? As the fugitive says, "If you prayed to God--and I still do--it's William Campion you hope is listening with [God]."

"If you told Father Campion he was a candidate for sainthood, he would laugh his ass off," Frank counsels at the end. "And that's exactly the kind of Saint the Church needs to put out there." 

The investigator from the Vatican, played by Dominic Comperatore, who refers to Frank early on as "sheriff," is adorable with a lovely, gentle vibe.