Leftists inside the Church and outside are trying to remake Christ's Church in their own image and likeness. Not only do they attack doctrines like the Holy Eucharist, the nature of the priesthood and the nature of God Himself, they also attack the saints.
The first attack is upon the nature of sainthood. They hold up as saints men and women who reflect their own political activism and rejection of Church teaching.
Thomas Merton, a convert to the Faith and Trappist monk, sold many copies of his book The Seven Story Mountain, which was hailed as a modern version of St. Augustine's Confessions.
Merton, however, after joining the monks quickly became tired of his life as a monk and looked to eastern mysticism to fill the void he felt existed in Catholicism. Until his accidental death by electrocution in Thailand in 1968, Merton sought to marry pagan, Eastern ideas with Catholicism.
On his first journey to Asia, he said:
Joy. We left the ground — I, with Christian mantras and a great sense of destiny, of being at last on my true way after years of waiting and wondering and fooling around. ... May I not come back without having settled the great affair. And found also the great compassion, mahakaruna ... I am going home, to the home where I have never been in this body.
Leftists like Fr. James Martin, heap praise on Merton: "May you always remember that God calls you to be saints in your own way and your own time. 'For me to be a saint means to be myself,' as Thomas Merton said."
Merton was also fond of drinking alcohol, partaking regularly, and was well known by his colleagues to have a sexual relationship with 19-year-old Margie Smith.
To hear more about the type of people venerated by leftists, watch The Download—The 'Saints' of the Left.