Too Many Clergy Among Canonized Saints?

Clergy members appear more frequently among canonized saints than their actual percentage of Church membership suggests, according to Pat McCloskey of Franciscan Media.

McCloskey attributes this overrepresentation to several factors. He notes that the Church has better remembered clergy martyrs than lay martyrs. Additionally, many priests and bishops have founded religious communities for women that actively promote their causes for beatification and canonization, whereas few dioceses make similar efforts for laypeople.

While the Catholic Church formally recognizes only its own members as saints, the Church admits that non-Christians and other Christians can be saved. One example of a lay saint is Gianna Beretta Molla, a physician and mother of four. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1994 and canonized ten years later after dying from a uterine tumor following the birth of her fourth child.