I am afraid that I am beginning to find the increasingly regular canonisation of (recently) deceased popes a bit distasteful. It smacks just a little too much of bankers awarding each other massive bonuses.I want to be clear here – I am not saying or implying that I think that John XXIII, Paul VI or John Paul II is not in Heaven. (I do in fact prefer some of them to others. However, that is equally true of the saints in general: I feel devotion to Perpetua, Radegund, Teresa of Avila, Margaret Clitheroe and – perhaps surprisingly – Martha. But I do not think they are somehow “more canonised” than individuals I have markedly less affection for.) It is a more general and inchoate unease.Some of it is historical: of the first 54 popes, 52 are recognised as saints