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No, the Catholic Church has never decanonized a saint in the sense of saying "This guy used to be a saint, and now he's not." Canonization doesn't actually make someone a saint, per se. A Catholic "canonization" is the process by which the Church ultimately recognize something God has already done. The Catholic Church does not claim that all "saints" (in ...

In short, no. Pilate had a choice. In Jesus' conversation with him, He says this: Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” John 19:11 ESV The Jewish religious leaders--not all Jews--were guilty of a greater sin than Pilate, even ...

To which Saints may a Catholic pray, and when can this begin? Actually a catholic can privately pray to anyone whom he/she thinks can intercede on their behalf. In fact Catholics do not see any difference in asking you to pray for me and asking my dead grandma (if I believe she is in heaven) to pray for me. Is it restricted to only those who are designated ...

I can tell you of the Russian Orthodox Church. There is a Synodal Commission which examines the issue and has the authority to glorify the person as a saint. There are locally venerated saints, which are venerated in a eparchy, and commonly venerated saints, which are inserted to the calendar common to all the church. The eparchial veneration is ...

Some papal appointed saints are also removed from the calendar, but sometimes veneration is officially forbidden - for example Simon of Trent (canonized by Pope Sixtus V). I don't claim to understand the full implications of this. It would seem in this case that he remains a martyr saint, but without veneration. I welcome edits or corrections (and if I have ...

The closest I can find to an answer to this question is in the final paragraph of this article, which says: More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, along with other English martyrs, and canonized in 1935. Had he never met death for the faith he still would have been a candidate for canonization as a confessor. From first to last his life was ...

First, Catholic teaching is not that the Pope is infallible in everything he says and does, but rather infallible only when specifically exercising the authority of his office to pronounce doctrine. Second, a Saint in the sense meant by the Catholic church is one whose life, witness and actions have been examined in depth and at length by church leadership ...

I am a Catholic, and though I'm certainly not professing to be an expert on doctrine... the answer I've been given goes along the lines that The Catholic church will not declare that any given deceased individual is in Hell (or not in Heaven) as we can't know the forgiveness of our Lord, but that there are individuals who, after careful examination of their ...

If you look up the catholic Liturgy, you will find that their understanding of holiness is not so narrow. They still sing from Didache "who is holy may he draw near" and in the greek catholic Liturgy the priest says before communion "Holy things for the holy" (the answer begins with "One is holy..." as to remember that human can be holy only by grace, not by ...

Catholics argue that More was not guilty of the torture that he was accused of. In this article, scroll down to the "Smear Campaign" section that speaks about it. My understanding is that most of the surviving historical records of the time, were written by More's enemies (and executioners) who would have been very much slanted in their accounts, dubious ...

At least in Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church saint Adalbert is not venerated. I had a friend that was a member of PAKP from a mixed (catholic-orthodox) family. His mother wanted to name him "Wojciech", but the parish priest disagreed. So he had the name "Wojciech" written in secular documents but was baptised with name "George" and thus he was known for ...

Spikenard has nothing in particular to do with Joseph. What is going on, is the following. There is an apocryphal tradition to do with how Joseph and Mary were married. Variants of the story can be found in the Protoevangelium of James, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Armenian Infancy Gospel, Book of the Nativity of Mary, and History of Joseph the Carpenter; and ...

Of course Pilate is not portrayed as a Christian, or even a good man, let alone a saint. However, nearly all bible commentators agree that Pilate was trying to avoid crucifying Christ. Undoubtedly it was political pressure from the Jewish leaders that forced his hand against his own will. First Pilate really did not care about the silly religious ...

Short answer: No Christian theology that I'm aware of supports the view that upon being killed by the Jews one becomes similar to Christ and the salvation of his soul more likely. Likewise, there is no such popular or common belief among Christians. There are probably those that do believe this, but they are the fringe, and the view is not common. ...

The infallibility of the Pope means that it is impossible for him (due to the guidance of the Holy Spirit) to lead the Church into wrong teaching in regards to faith and morals. However, it does not guarantee that the Pope is a morally good person. It is possible for someone to teach the truth, but not live it himself. There are many examples of Popes who ...

The answer depends on how you define "saint." If you use a protestant definition of the term, then any church named after a Christian (living or dead) is a church named after a saint. And there are many examples of this. A few I found quickly by google: Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois, named after D. L. Moody. Martin Luther Lutheran Church in ...

As it happens, my local church is named after a saint who wasn't written up by name in the Bible. He was the founder of our church and his name was Emmanuel Peterson. (No prizes for correctly guessing whether the church uses his first or last name.) I also found a non-denominational Protestant church called San Diego First Assembly. (That's probably ...

Round the corner from me there used to be a Methodist Church called St Aidan's. St Aidan was Bishop of Lindisfarne and died in 651. Potted biography. So yes: it does happen. But I know of only that one. [That particular church was closed some years ago due to structural problems and demolished. There's now a block of flats called St Aidan's Court on the ...

I was reading this while writing this months blog article on "What is the Church" "The Church . . . is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy,' loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to ...

From http://www.catholic.org/saints/patron.php Patron saints are chosen as special protectors or guardians over areas of life. These areas can include occupations, illnesses, churches, countries, causes -- anything that is important to us. The earliest records show that people and churches were named after apostles and martyrs as early as the ...

I'm not Catholic. Some of my fellow Protestants do criticize the Catholic church on this point. Personally, I think it's not a big deal, it's just a case of using a word with two slightly different meanings. Like, forms that asks for your address typically ask for street, city, state, zip. "City" here clearly means the name of the community you live in, ...

One reason could be because he was "martyred": he steadfastly refused to take the oath of supremacy of the Crown in the relationship between the Kingdom and the Church in England. Holding fast to the ancient teaching of Papal supremacy, More refused to take the oath and furthermore publicly refused to uphold Henry's annulment from Catherine. John Fisher, ...

Since wikipedia loads of good info, I'll just answer the question. How is someone deemed a saint (in 2011)? The pope canonizes a dead person who has lived a life of heroic virtue and has performed a posthumous miracle in addition to the miracle required for beatification. What about martyrdom? Martyrdom circumvents the normal requirement of a posthumous ...

There are some confusion among Christians regarding Paradise, Heaven, Hell, lake of fire and Sheol. Already many questions are asked on these topics like; this, this,this and this. I would like to explain what I understand about Heaven. I believe that Paradise was a place where the Old Testament saints were waiting for Jesus to defeat Satan and bring them ...

The main verse that people quote with regards to being in heaven immediately is the words of Jesus on the cross to the thief: "I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise" Luke 23:43 Indicating that rather than just waiting until the 2nd coming, there is a paradise which people inhabit immediately upon death, similar to that spoken of in John ...

The basic question here is about Catholic “praying” to saints. It is not exactly a prayer, but it is like asking saints or even Mary to pray to God on our behalf. Catholic only ask for their “intercession” not pray to them. Regarding sub-questions: Which saints are qualified to receive prayers?: Only those are venerated as saints, who are designated as ...

Quite simply, because he fulfilled the requirements of canonization, described here: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0136.html It appears that the main reason for them opening the canonization proceedings for More was his martyrdom: More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, along with other English martyrs, and canonized in 1935. ...