Maybe it’s Saint Gaetano. That would be fine. But if you’re looking for some suggestions, The Onion has a few that will make you laugh.

Next week, I have the honor and privilege of being the keynote speaker at  an annual fund raising dinner for Catholic Social Services in Winston-Salem, N.C. The event is called Partners in Hope and it will be held Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel downtown.

For information: click here,  or Call Tammy at 336-714-3228 or tmwatkins@charlottediocese.org

ABC News’ report tonight from the Vatican on the canonization process was riddled with errors. Among them — that the office of the Devil’s Advocate still exists within the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and acts as prosecutor in canonization causes. That hasn’t been the case since 1983, when Pope John Paul II abolished the office in order to streamline the saint making process. John Paul named more saints than all the popes combined in the previous 400 years, including my cousin, Padre Gaetano Catanoso.

It was nice to see Monsignor Sarno, a Brooklyn native, Vatican insider and a key source in my book, interviewed in the ABC News story this evening. He looks older, but otherwise just as dour as he was when I met him in his office in June 2006.

Washington Post reports: “VATICAN CITY — During Pope John Paul II’s 2005 funeral, crowds at the Vatican shouted for him to be made a saint immediately. “Santo subito!” they chanted for one of the most important and beloved pontiffs in history. His successor heard their call. On Friday, in the fastest process on record, Pope Benedict XVI set May 1 as the date for John Paul’s beatification — a key step toward Catholicism’s highest honor and a major morale boost for a church reeling from the clerical sex abuse scandal.”

John Paul II, the busiest saint-maker in church history, approved each step in the process for the 2005 canonization of Padre Gaetano Catanoso. Pope Benedict XVI canonized Gaetano several months after JPII’s death. To learn more about saints and the canonization process, there are few sources better than My Cousin the Saint.

Gavin Ferriby, director of the Sacred Heart University Ryan-Matura Library in Fairfield, Conn., reviews My Cousin the Saint this week in great depth and detail. Here’s an excerpt:

“This is a engaging account of life, death, and faith in an Italian-American family — the latter portions on canonization are unavoidably less emotionally engaging than the author’s account of Padre Gaetano, or the illness and death of the author’s brother Alan. Catanoso nevertheless gives an authentic account of how being Catholic has changed for him, and those things that continue to hold him to the church, and those things that make him want to run from it.  Written in a decidedly lay, non-theological voice, the journalist Catanoso covers his story with graceful prose and a sure eye for telling detail.”

Just a reminder that My Cousin the Saint — in hard cover, paperback or e-book — makes a great gift for Christmas. It’s a timeless story about faith, family, and miracles. And much of the story is set in Italy! The prices in any format are really inexpensive these days. So order early and often!

“At a time when I should be spending my time reading documentation in advance of next week’s annual meeting of the bishops of the United States, I found myself totally engrossed in a book, which I highly recommend to anyone. Titled My Cousin the Saint (Harper Collins, 2008), this masterful account was written by Justin Catanoso…”

So begins the Nov. 14, 2010 blog entry by Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla. My book was brought to the bishop’s attention by an old friend from my boyhood days in Wildwood, NJ who now lives in St. Pete. The rest of the kind and gracious review is here.

“Just let me say that I have seldom been as captivated by a personal story as I was by this one, finding it hard to put my iPad on ‘off,’” Bishop Lynch writes.

Today is the fifth anniversary of a day that remains indelible in my memory, and the memory of the entire Catanoso family on in America and Italy. On October 23, 2005, in his very first such ceremony, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Padre Gaetano Catanoso in a grand ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. We were all there, 60 of us from America, more than 100 from Italy, cheering for our relative amid 100,000 others from around the world. What a day!

This commentary on National Public Radio broadcast Oct. 20, 2005, led to this book, published by HarperCollins on May 20, 2008.

The Second Annual Festival Italiano will be held on Sunday, October 17,  in downtown Greensboro. They’re getting started around noon on the 300 block of South Elm Street, just as the Crop Walk is finishing nearby. I’ll be at Tent 21 with books for sale and signing. Story and details here. Goes until 6 p.m. Lots of food and fun. Free admission. Perfect weather predicted. Come by a get a book or three!

Further details at the festival web site, here.

Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT has put up a nice web site to promote my talk there on November 3. Very much looking forward to it.