GATLING@SUVM (Keith E Gatling) (01/15/90)
Donna, I hope you won't mind a Lutheran adding to what you were saying before
about the canonized saints. I think this might clear up some more confusion
that many non-Catholics have about the issue.
A while back someone on the list made a comment about the "Catholic
saints" or something similar to that. It may even be the post to
which Donna was responding. Waiting for someone else to respond (I
get so tired of being one of the only non-Catholics to ever try to
explain this stuff to the rest of you), I forgot all about it until
now. However, no one has yet done it, and so I shall do it now.
Contrary to popular belief (even among some Catholics), the Catholic
church has NEVER said "X is a saint, Y isn't." What they have said
is something roughly equivilant to "This is a person that we're pretty
sure must have made it," but they have never said that a particular
person was condemned to Hell. Excommunicated, maybe...but that's an-
other issue altogether, and only of consequence in this world.
It is also important to note that when the Catholic church canon-
izes William of Lawrence as a saint, but fails to do the same for Lauren
of Delaware, it is not saying that she is not a saint. It is merely
saying that there is insufficient evidence for them to say that she
definitely is.
It's sort of like the Academy Awards in that in popular opinion
you're a loser if you didn't get the Oscar. Yet people tend to forget
that you had to be pretty good to get a nomination in the first place.
I hope this clears things up a bit.
kegJIM@AUVM (Jim McIntosh) (01/16/90)
In article <CHRISTIA%90011505152766@FINHUTC>, Keith E Gatling <GATLING@SUVM> says: > It is also important to note that when the Catholic church canon- > izes William of Lawrence as a saint, but fails to do the same for Lauren > of Delaware, it is not saying that she is not a saint. It is merely > saying that there is insufficient evidence for them to say that she > definitely is. It is also interesting to note that only Catholics (and usually Clery or Religious) seem to get canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, but few would say that only Catholics are saved. Probably the best way to think about "Catholic Saints" is to think of them as people the RCC is pointing out to Catholics as good role models. ------- Jim McIntosh (JIM@AUVM) The American University Washington DC 20016 USA