devil's advocate

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devil's advocate:

see canonizationcanonization
, in the Roman Catholic Church, process by which a person is classified as a saint. It is now performed at Rome alone, although in the Middle Ages and earlier bishops elsewhere used to canonize.
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Indeed, to get a fair representation of the alternatives an advocatus diaboli, and one acting more than pro forma, will be necessary for a reasoned decision among all the alternatives.

Public policy and administration: the goals of rationality and responsibility

Let us now rehearse some of the criticisms that can be made of Xella's interpretation--I am here playing the role of advocatus diaboli, of course, for no explanation is obvious and Xella's may well be correct.