NicoleC,

Well said, but....I'm not sure I'm willing to concede yet that "we aren't equipped to judge [Isabella] at all".

OK. Hitler died and WWII ended 58 years ago. 58 years and more after the fact, people face prosecution for their deeds during WWII.

So do you think that we ARE equipped to judge surviving Nazis and their collaborators? If you think so then what's the cut-off? If Isabella escapes moral censure because of something like a statute of limitations, then where do you draw the temporal line? If we should not judge acts more than x years old, what's x?

Joe,
I'm not Catholic, but I don't have problems with the political side of canonization. It might not be a bad thing, however, if it worked both ways. If people have been named saints in the past for political reasons. it wouldn't be the worst of all worlds if people were NOT named saints these days for political reasons.

Father Serra would be a case in point. I'm not a native American either, but I am not completely comfortable with the idea that Serra was "an admirable person" if he in fact "rode side-by-with Spanish conquistadors." He presumably saw first-hand what was going on. It couldn't have been pretty. I can imagine dismay in some quarters at his canonization. By the way, who's pushing for it?