S1E6: The Saints (Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?)

For Episodes 2-10 we'll be diving into the 9 key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism in a series called Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?

In today's episode we'll be talking about the Saints: intercessory prayers, veneration/honor due to them, patron Saints, and a bit about the Canonization process.

Resources:
Why Do Catholics Pray to Saints? | Catholic Answers Video
Answering Objections to the Intercession of the Saints | Trent Horn; Catholic Answers
How can Mary and the Saints in Heaven hear our prayers? | Catholic Answers Video
Does Praying to the Saints Mean Catholics Worship Them, Too? | Catholic Answers
What the Early Church Believed: The Intercession of the Saints | Catholic Answers
Relics | Catholic Answers
The Process of Beatification and Canonization | EWTN

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Transcript

• The Church Militant (Earth), the Church Suffering (Purgatory), the Church Triumphant (Heaven)
   
  • Those souls who have entered into glory and utter bliss – the beatific vision – an unmediated vision of God whereby these souls have full knowledge of God (and a love which flows from that) – this is the Communion of Saints, the Church Triumphant. 
• “In that communion there is no loss of individuality, yet such an interdependence that the saints are “members one of another” (Rom., xii, 5), not only sharing the same blessings (I Cor., xii, 13) and exchanging good offices (ibid., xii, 25) and prayers” (Catholic Encyclopedia via Catholic Answers)
   
  • Communal Bank of Grace analogy: prayers and penance for one another; merit and satisfaction for one another. 
     
    • As the Church militant, we, on earth, can both intercede for and satisfy the penances of those both on earth and in Purgatory (we’ll revisit in episode on Purgatory) 
  • Those in Heaven can POWERFULLY intercede for us
• Praying for the Saints’ intercession: just like asking another person on earth to pray for you except the Saints are already with God and can bring your prayer to him alongside you in an especially powerful way.
   
  • Different Saints are patrons of different things and you may find yourself able to relate particularly better to one Saint versus another because of the experiences they had during their lives on earth. 
• The practice of honoring Saints comes from the longstanding Jewish tradition of honoring prophets and other holy people with shrines. (i.e. Mary) 
   
  • Most of the early Church fathers were in agreeance that we are to ask for the intercession of both the angels and Saints. (excerpts from some of their writings can be found in the resource titled “What the Early Church Believed: The Intercession of the Saints” linked in the show notes.)
• Catholic devotion to Saints is not idolatry. Just as we would keep pictures and momentos of our family members who have passed away to remember them, the Saints are our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before us and show us the way to Christ. 
   
  • Relics: “In the fourth century the great biblical scholar, Jerome, declared, “We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are” (Ad Riparium, i, P.L., XXII, 907).” (Catholic Answers)
• Canonization = the process by which the Catholic Church recognizes what God has already done by officially declaring a person to be in Heaven with God; a Saint.
   
  • Servant of God -> Venerable -> Blessed -> Saint
     
    • Miracles serve as proof that the Saint’s prayers are being presented to God
• Commonly called the “Devil’s Advocate,” the Promoter of the Faith is tasked with compiling and presenting any reasonable objections to the canonization of an individual. ““In a civil or criminal proceedings it would be what we more or less know as the prosecutor: the one who has to search for the truth in a special way, because here the only thing we are looking for is the truth, as in every proceeding, as in every investigation,”… ““it’s essential that someone help search for the truth, because sometimes due to excessive affection, devotion, distraction, or other types of reasons, the [candidate] can be presented in an inappropriate way, because research or historical documentation are missing.” And it’s because “all people have defects; there is no saint who does not have any defects.” (Monsignor Alberto Royo Mejía is the promoter of the faith in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints)