Pope to Beatify Mel Gibson's 'Passion' Muse

[triadboy]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040530/film_nm/religion_passion_nun_dc_3

The Vatican suspended an earlier bid to beatify Emmerich in 1928 out of concern that Clemens Brentano, the German Romantic poet who wrote down her visions, had embellished her account with his own details.

Wait a minute! There was embellishment going on?!

 

[hgc]

Remember, this pope is manufacturing saints on an very sped-up assembly line, on a very demanding schedule. You can't worry about little things like the wheels not fitting on.

 

[triadboy]

Don't Catholics treat these Saints like minor deities of the Hindu religion?...As manisfestations of the larger god?

 

[ceo_esq]

Don't Catholics treat these Saints like minor deities of the Hindu religion?...As manisfestations of the larger god?

I don't think so. From the HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism (1995):

saints, in a strict sense, those officially recognized (canonized) by the Church as persons who have lived a holy life, who now share in the Beatific Vision (i.e., face-to-face experience of the presence of God), and who may be publicly venerated by the faithful. To be sure, there are countless more saints than those who have been formally offered for public veneration. Anyone who may reasonably be believed to have lived a good life and who, therefore, may be presumed to be enjoying eternal life with God can be considered a saint.

...

saints, devotion to, private and public practices that honor or venerate holy men and women. ... At certain junctures in the Church's history, confusion about the relationship between the saints and Christ caused the misconception that Catholics actually worship the saints. Church teaching retains the important distinction: God is worshiped; Mary and the [other] saints are venerated and appropriately honored in private and public devotion.

 

[A_Feeble_Mind]

Don't Catholics treat these Saints like minor deities of the Hindu religion?...As manisfestations of the larger god?

Technically, no. But in reality, I know Catholics who say they are going to "pray to" a certain saint for this or that. My mom is still really big into that; she know which saint is good for every possible situation you can think of.

When I was a Catholic, it always bothered me when she said she was going to pray to one of these saints. I always felt it was important to specify that she really intended to ask the saint to intercede for her, instead of giving the impression she was praying to these saints. Now, however, it is obvious that the prayers really are directed toward the saint, with thanks to the saint if the desired outcome is met.

 

[ceo_esq]

Technically, no. But in reality, I know Catholics who say they are going to "pray to" a certain saint for this or that. My mom is still really big into that; she know which saint is good for every possible situation you can think of.

When I was a Catholic, it always bothered me when she said she was going to pray to one of these saints. I always felt it was important to specify that she really intended to ask the saint to intercede for her, instead of giving the impression she was praying to these saints. Now, however, it is obvious that the prayers really are directed toward the saint, with thanks to the saint if the desired outcome is met.

Interesting point. Again, from the HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism article on "saints":

Catholics pray only to God; they ask the saints to intercede for them with God. They do not believe that healing, forgiveness, or other blessings come through the power of the saint, but from God through the saint's intercession.

Yet it is obvious from Catholic literature that they often refer to themselves as "praying" to saints. This suggests that two different senses of the word pray are in play here: one referring specifically to communion with God; and another, less theologically strict sense referring to beseeching or entreating saints (in much the same way, I suppose, that pray was formerly to be used in English to mean "to request earnestly" in a general sense - the part of a legal complaint, for example, where one asks the court for relief is still called the "prayer").