Pope John Paul II supposedly “beatified” Katharine Drexel in 1980.1 This same pope supposedly “canonized” her in 2000.2 We don’t know if she is a real saint and if she is in heaven. However, here are some of the salient points that the Vatican considers important:
Katharine . . . saw the plight and destitution of the native Indian-Americans. . . . [S]he made the decision to give herself totally to God, along with her inheritance, through service to American Indians and Afro-Americans. . . . Katharine found in the Eucharist the source of her love for the poor and oppressed and of her concern to reach out to combat the effects of racism. . . . [S]he felt a compassionate urgency to help change racial attitudes … [because] colored people continued to be victims of oppression.3
The Vatican also praises Katharine Drexel for working for “advances for social justice”, and for founding nearly 60 missions and “schools for both Native Americans and Afro-Americans”.
We should piously hope she (and any dead person) goes to heaven. But wherever her soul is now, the Vatican promotes her as a proto-civil rights worker. Now the SSPX is promoting this conciliar “saint” too, thus putting the SSPX more in step with the Vatican, as well as the modern world. See below.