Doug Saunders Does the Vatican Beat

If I want to maintain my equilibrium in the morning I may have to stop reading my copy of The Globe and Mail until the new pope is elected. Take this little gem from Doug Saunders:

In his life, he brought magic and miracles back to the church, granting legitimacy to the sort of weeping statues, faith-healing saints and mystical sects that had almost disappeared from the Roman Catholic Church.

But the death of Pope John Paul II has been stripped of many such fripperies. The Vatican, which perfected its high-tech marketing skills under his leadership, has organized a funeral and succession relatively free of mystic traditions, some of which are being abandoned after centuries of use.

Miracles and faith healing, you see, are mere magic and fripperies, which are to be mocked by the chattering classes. To what weeping statues did John Paul grant legitimacy? Saunders doesn't say. What mystical sects? We aren't told (though you can be sure that Opus Dei was the target).