In the run-up to Sunday’s beatification of the late Pope John Paul II in Rome, author and Jesuit priest Father James Martin writes in Slate:

“The naysayers, mainly on the left, see John Paul not as one of the great religious figures of the age, but as a person with whom they often disagreed, particularly on issues of the ordination of women, the Vatican’s response to the sexual-abuse crisis, and treatment of gays and lesbians. The most common arguments against his canonization can be boiled down to two: First, I disagreed with him. Second, he wasn’t perfect.”

The essay is here.

Last month, while in New York City, I was interviewed for a podcast about my book by Tim Reidy, online editor for America magazine, the fairly liberal Catholic monthly published by the Society of Jesuits. Father James Martin, bestselling author of My Life with the Saints, is a regular contributor to the widely regarded publication. My podcast was posted today and can be heard here.

If you’ve ever wondered about the connection, your explanation is here, offered by none other than a leading expert on saints, Father James Martin, SJ. The answer to that question is brief, but Father Martin, in this simple and engaging video, shares plenty more of his expertise on this favorite topic of his.

From today’s Wall Street Journal, the always thoughtful and provocative Father James Martin weighs in on the lives of two potential saints, the newly beatified parents of the popular St. Therese of Lisieux. Saints were were married is a rarity; saints who were married couples rarer still. Martin offers compelling insight into why such people are as worthy as emulations as virtuous priests and nuns. The story is here.

Excerpt: Certainly there have been as many saintly wives and husbands as there have been holy priests and nuns. But religious orders and dioceses know how to navigate the canonization procedures on behalf of bishops, priests, brothers and sisters. By contrast, how many families have the resources to embark on the decades-long process on behalf of even the holiest mother or father? As a result, married Catholics have few exemplars other than Mary and Joseph, whose situation was hardly replicable.