Two saints nominated

Two Roman Catholic saints made the list of outstanding non-Roman Catholic Christian leaders for reasons their nominators gave:

* "I suppose most people, on hearing the phrase 'non-Roman Catholic Christian,' will think of a Protestant or, perhaps, of someone in the Eastern Orthodox Church," said Rev. James Wiseman, OSB, from the Department of Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. "However, although I am not a Church historian, I don't think 'Roman Catholic' became a common designation until after the break-up of the Church on such occasions as the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation. In that sense, great Christians of the first ten centuries or so would probably never have heard the term. I am, therefore, going to go back to the fourth/fifth century and name St. Augustine, whose voluminous treatises and sermons have had incalculable influence on all subsequent centuries, even though some people consider some of that influence to have been deleterious. The hundreds of his sermons that have come down to us, the massive treatises on 'The Trinity' and 'The City of God,' his commentaries on Scripture, his apologetic and catechetical works, and, most of all, his 'Confessions' provide us with an unparalleled legacy."

* "The most outstanding non-Roman Catholic Christian was Paul the Apostle," said Rev. William McConville, OFM, professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville. "In his regard, the designation 'Roman Catholic' would be anachronistic. His missionary zeal and his defense of the radical freedom of the Gospel were the necessary bridges between Jesus and the emergence of Christianity as a religion." (JB)