Christopher McLaughlin - The Cause for Tommy Burns – The First Step Toward Being Declared a Saint in the Catholic Church

Christopher McLaughlin joins us from Glasgow, Scotland and is one of the people heading up the Cause for Tommy Burns, hoping that Tommy will eventually be declared a saint in the Catholic Church. Christopher is our guest on this episode and shares his experiences and knowledge about the quest for Tommy’s sainthood that many are praying for. Tommy was a professional soccer player, which in Scotland and most of the world, is called football. Tommy was a footballer for the famous, and beloved, Celtic team in Glasgow from 1975 to 1989 and later coached and managed the team. Tommy died in May of 2008 at the young age of 51 of melanoma, a form of skin cancer. He left behind his wife and four children.

Christopher has a wealth of knowledge about Tommy, his life, and his humble and deep devotion to God and the Catholic faith. Christopher shares some history of Catholicism in Scotland and how it is intertwined with Celtic football. Tommy was very pious and humbly practiced corporal works of mercy throughout his life. According to Christopher, the love for Tommy was very apparent at his funeral, which included 40 priests and an estimated 20,000+ people.

Christopher describes the process of opening a Cause for Sainthood according to the Church’s Canon Law. The first step involves the bishop of the diocese where Tommy passed away. The final step, which could be a few years to hundreds of years away, culminates in the Pope declaring the person a saint. There are many steps and an enormous amount of prayer, research, and verification prior to a Pope declaring someone a saint. Opening a Cause for Sainthood does not guarantee Canonization, it often does not. 

Christopher, and his fellow researcher Philip Church, are the “petitioners” in this process (see sainthood link below). They are asking for anyone who knew Tommy or is praying for an intercession from Tommy to contact them at contact@tommyburns.org

Information about the process of sainthood in the Catholic Church: Saints | USCCB

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