Do you hear what I hear?

Last night, Kevin alerted me to this "saintly" conversation on The View daytime talkshow.

JOY BEHAR: I’m going to get in trouble for this, but you know what? I have a theory that you can’t find any saints any more because of psycho-tropic medication. I think that the old days the saints were hearing voices and they didn’t have any thorazine to calm them down. [laughter] Now that we have all of this medication available to us, you can’t find a saint any more.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I don’t think so, Mother Teresa.

BEHAR: That’s why Mother Teresa had issues. Let’s not forget, she didn’t really believe 100 percent like these saints who were hearing voices. She didn’t hear voices. So the Church said "okay, she does good deeds. Let’s make her a saint." In the old days it used to be you heard voices. They can’t do that anymore.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: They’d cut your hair off. They’d set you on fire. Don’t forget what they did to Joan of Arc.

BEHAR: Because she was hearing voices.

GOLDBERG: They set her on fire. That’s why people stopped saying anything.

BEHAR: Well it was- no, no, no, in the last century before you had medication, they still were hearing voices. I’m telling you.

HASSELBECK: I don’t think they were hearing voices. I think they were committed to their faith and they’d go to death for it.

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Because I hear voices. I hear voices in my head.

BEHAR: Well, duh!
[laughter]

HASSELBECK: I hear voices too.

BEHAR: Medication is in order perhaps!

While Behar's assertions are nothing short of asinine, they reinforce the need for Catholics to stand up for the Church's teaching concerning our relationship with God and what it takes for the Church to declare anyone a Saint. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

"...we love the martyrs as the Lord's disciples and imitators, and rightly so because of their matchless devotion towards their king and master. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples!" CCC 957 (emphasis added)

The Catholic Church does not declare anyone a saint simply because they claimed to have heard God's voice, thereby giving evidence to the need for psychotropic drugs. The Saints are declared as such because of their devotion to Christ. A saintly life is evidenced by a life of holiness: prayer, sacrifice and service to Christ and his people. It is a life lived in cooperation with God's grace. A saintly life cannot be equated to symptoms of certain mental disorders.

Ms. Behar, before you start airing your opinions about Catholic teaching for impressionable minds to hear, please do your homework! Facts are far more beneficial than intrigues.