I guess I wasn't misreading the post, unfortunately.
Catholic doctrine by this point in history is that only the pope can canonize (Through
this organization). It shouldn't matter to the Catholic mechanics what other religious practices do for their saints. This discussion is about the mechanics for Catholicism. Surely the system should be setup in a way that can accurately portray a multitude of faiths and how they handle the 'revered dead' of various kinds, Saints included.
Those people who start being revered as saints but are not yet canonized by the pope might get a different status if you want to portray them - Folk Saints, perhaps - and be potential candidates for canonization, but they should not instantly be recognized by the wider Catholic world as saints before an official canonization. Besides, if the pope then rejects the claims of sainthood, that's interesting - it means causing unrest between those that follow the Pope's decree and those who reject it.
Right now the system sounds boring as well as inaccurate. Getting a saint sounds like it's just a cost problem, not one of trying to get acceptance from the head of the faith, which it should be. Cost might come into that, but it should not be the sole determining factor.
There should be hard blocks.
The pope's influence is one of the core tenants of Catholicism, and you're undermining it by the very nature of how you're portraying the faith, mechanically. Perhaps countries should be able to build a cardinal's seat, but they should still have to try and get a cardinal elected to that position. This is completely the wrong way of representing the way cardinals were appointed. If it's meant to show the corruption in the system, that should be done by having countries able to try and bribe the papacy for a seat. Cardinals didn't just show up at the college of cardinals without the pope's explicit approval and endorsement for the position (A minimum relation wouldn't even suffice. There are only a few seats, sometimes fewer than 30).
In addition, there should ideally be ways for the pope to adjust the number of seats in the College,
as was done historically. This was done in order to limit the College's power when it suited the pope, and to open opportunities to appoint new cardinals if that would win allies and support.
I also don't know how the Western Schism is going to be portrayed even halfway accurately if you're not going to be representing how the various competing popes were all appointing their own cardinals, which would not be recognized by the other popes. Quite honestly there's a lot we should rather be discussing, such as whether there should be enough nuance to have cardinals from your country not always vote in line with your wishes, or what should happen if your cardinal dies and you lose that seat in the College, but the basics should be correct before we can have that sort of conversation.
Right now it seems like you've neutered the papacies role in the faith to an unhistorical degree. Under this system, he's a powerless figurehead in his own College and unable to even control who is canonized.
Again,
this is boring. I don't mind some abstraction, but you've removed all of the political nuance and intrigue that came with the position of cardinal. Somehow it's made the most politically bloody, interesting institution in Catholicism a boring one where the pope has no power and there's just a positive opinion and some money between any Catholic country and having a seat in the College.
