The Heavenly Jobless

It was almost worse than if God had died. Not very many people know God, after all. But saints are another story, often they are local boys who had made good. Thus when word came out of Rome last month that some saints had been dropped from a new liturgical calendar (TIME, May 16), both their devout followers and a surprising number of nondevout allies were outraged. The Vatican apparently viewed the new calendar as a routine liturgical change, hardly noticeable in an age of guitar Masses. But the Pope might just as well have issued an encyclical against baseball.

That Kind of Guy. Protestants, Catholics, Jews and even nonbelievers were suddenly making common cause on be half of sanctity. A mock-solemn committee of agnostics and believers descended on a local unemployment office in Los Angeles and picketed in favor of the "heavenly jobless." A truck driver in Boston took his St. Christopher statue off the dashboard, had his first accident in 35 years, and ruefully put it back. An international fraternity of Christopherphiles with headquarters in France reported that enrollments were climbing. Columnist Art Buchwald, a Jew, speculated that good old St. Chris topher would go right on protecting travelers, calendar or no, because he's "that kind of guy."

In Massachusetts, an anonymous worshiper at St. Barbara's Church in Woburn began placing fresh flowers at the statue of the church's demoted patron saint. A woman in a crowded Naples streetcar invoked the name of St. Januarius -- the city's patron -- when the car suddenly stopped and slammed passengers together. A few seconds later, she changed her tone in disgust. "The devil with San Gennaro! He's no good any more. My poor saint!"

Devotees of St. George and St. Nicholas were more solemnly perturbed. In London, Tory M.P. John Biggs-Davison, a Roman Catholic, wondered if "Anglicans and Orthodox were consulted, in the spirit of Christian unity. Cavalrymen laying their wreath at St. George's statue, Scouts marching past the sovereign on St. George's Day will think no less of their patron, but they will think less kindly of Rome." In Washington, D.C., the Russian Orthodox community expressed its feelings by packing the church for a May feast day honoring St. Nicholas. Some Orthodox churchmen complained that Rome insulted their faith by unilaterally downgrading saints who were especially revered by Eastern Christianity.

Central Mysteries. Actually, Rome's reform was an attempt to carry out one of the mandates of the Second Vatican Council: to update an antiquated liturgical calendar that was cluttered with unfamiliar, and in some cases probably fictional figures. Some of the updating consisted of replacing little-known early martyrs (and no less than 17 early Popes) with a wider sampling of countries and vocations: the newly included Uganda martyrs,* for instance, are among the calendar's relatively few laymen. A more important reason: renewed emphasis through the liturgical year on the central mysteries of Christ's life, passion and resurrection, rather than on the veneration of saints.

It all might have worked smoothly had the Vatican bothered to prepare people for the news. What Rome needs most, some Catholic churchmen suggested, is a couple of good public relations men. In the weeks since the announcement, the Vatican has tried valiantly to assure everyone concerned that the decalendarized saints have not lost their halos. Their continued presence among the ten thousand spiritual heroes in the Roman martyrology--the Vatican's official compendium of saints --means they may still be invoked as names at baptism, patrons of churches, and as good friends to the prayerful. But Father Pierre Jounel, the Vatican aide who announced the changes, seems to be resigned to a bit of retribution all the same. "When I arrive in Heaven," he is reported to have said, "they'll be waiting for me with cudgels."

* Some 22 Christians, mostly court page boys, put to death by an anti-Christian tribal ruler in Uganda during 1885-1887.

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