Corrupted incorruptible saints (Catholicism)

Question

Why does the Catholic Church promote the bodies of certain individuals as "incorruptibles" when their bodies have clearly corrupted? Further, why does the Catholic Church hide the corruption and artificially delay corruption, such as a rubber mask in the case of Padre Pio to hide his decayed head, or storing bodies in environmentally controlled coffins, or injecting with formaldehyde? How is the latter "incorruptible" evidence of anything supernatural, when the natural corruption is either hidden or delayed through very non-supernatural means?

For example this Wikipedia list, almost all the "incorruptibles" are described as corrupted and requiring wax to cover up their face and hands. Why does their true state need to be hidden?

If they are all corrupted, why does the Catholic Church maintain the appearance of incorruption?

Answer 1

Frame issue...

You are clearly not understanding the same thing as the catholic church about the term "incorruptible" it does not mean "never decays".

In the realm of Catholicism, an incorrupt saint is one whose body experiences little, no, or delayed decomposition after death. It is believed that divine intervention has allowed a number of human bodies to forgo the normal decomposition process as a symbol of the deceased’s holiness while alive on earth, and can also be perceived as the person’s mortal remains being prepared for the resurrection of the body at the end of time. - Tekton Ministries

Now another thing that people seem to forget is that "incorruptible" saints are generally very old. Like how old? most of them are hundreds of years old. A human body should be dust, all the soft tissue should be gone!

For those who are embalmed and buried in a coffin five to 10 years is a more typical decomposition timeline, he said [Wescott]. At that point, the tissue is gone and only bones remain. - LifeScience

Here is a list of some of the incorruptibles. Notice how the majority of them should only be bones if even that much remained. Died in 350 AD and St Silvan still has skin?! (Yes, there is protective seals on it now, but what about the past 1000+ years before they did that?!)

• St. Silvan 350 – Dubrovnik, Croatia
• St. Anthony of Padua (tongue) 1231 – Padua, Italy
• St. Clare of Assisi 1253 – Assisi, Italy
• St. Zita 1272 – Lucca, Italy
• St. Catherine of Siena (head) 1380 – Siena, Italy
• St. Rita 1457 – Cascia, Italy
• St. Catherine of Bologna 1463 – Bologna, Italy
• St. Francis Xavier 1552 – Goa, India
• St. Vincent de Paul 1660 – Paris, France
• St. Veronica Giuliani 1727 – Citta de Castello, Italy
• St. Teresa Margaret 1770- Florence, Italy
• St. John Vianney 1859 – Ars, France
• St. Catherine Laboure 1876 – Paris, France
• Blessed Pope Pius IX 1878 – St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
• St. Bernadette of Lourdes 1879 – Nevers, France
• St. John Bosco 1888 – Turin, Italy
• St. Frances Xavier Cabrini 1917 – Manhattan, New York
• St. Pope John XXIII 1963 – St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
• St. Padre Pio 1968 – San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

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Catholic Incorruptibles: Slow decay, No decay, or delayed decay. Not just "No decay"

Answer 2

Corrupted incorruptible saints according to Catholicism?

Why does the Catholic Church promote the bodies of certain individuals as "incorruptibles" when their bodies have clearly corrupted?

Do you have any examples to support your statement?

If a body shows signs of corruption, the Church would not hold it to be incorruptible. That is basic evidence, the Church can not ignore.

As for your question about Padre Pio’s face, his face was covered with a lifelike silicone mask in order to help the skin from getting damaged from sunlight and from individuals cleaning the face for public viewing. This type of thing has happened to the face of St. Bernadette.

Not every saint is expected to have an incorruptible corpse. Although incorruptibility is recognized as supernatural, it is no longer counted as a miracle in the recognition of a saint (The Incorruptibles).

Embalmed bodies were not recognized as incorruptibles. For example, although the body of Pope John XXIII remained in a remarkably intact state after its exhumation, Church officials remarked that the body had been embalmed and additionally there was a lack of oxygen in his sealed triple coffin.

Incorruptibility is seen as distinct from the good preservation of a body, or from mummification. Incorruptible bodies are often said to have the odour of sanctity, exuding a sweet or floral, pleasant aroma.

Incorruptibilty is not reserved to the Catholic Church alone. There are a number of Orthodox Saints who have incorrupt bodies.

Nowadays the Catholic Church is striving to better understand why some Saints are preserved from corruption, thus seeing if the preservation is indeed miraculous or not. "These saints are in a class by themselves. Even though incorruptibility does not automatically confer sainthood upon the subject, it is still properly appreciated by the Church as a supernatural occurrences. The Church thus seeks the help of scientists and other professional to understand this question in a more modern light!

The lack of formal explanations on this subject seems to stem from the fact that this is an area of expertise for the scientific (professional) community and not the Church to investigate.

"Over the last 15 years, however, a new view of the Incorruptibles has begun to emerge. At the Vatican's request, Italian pathologists, chemists, and radiologists have been poring over the bodies of the ancient men and women interred in church reliquaries. Charged with gleaning new information about the lives of the saints and assisting in the conservation of sacred remains, they have also brought science to the altars of Europe's cathedrals. Already, they have examined more than two dozen saints and beati, shedding light on the mystery of their preservation. While some saints were clearly mummified by their devout followers, others were protected from decay by environmental conditions, raising new questions about incorruptibility. "What is a miracle?" asks Ezio Fulcheri, a pathologist at the University of Genoa and one of the leading researchers on the Incorruptibles. "It's something unexplainable, a special event that may occur in different ways." The causes may seem mysterious "but don't exclude [rare] natural processes that are different from the normal course of things." - The Incorruptibles.