Questions & Answers

NIV2011 chooses to avoid the word "saint" because of its potential for misunderstanding. But in Scripture the "saints" are believers (Psalm 85:8-9, Ephesians 1:1)--persons who have been declared "holy" through their faith in Jesus. That includes you and me.

Roman Catholicism denies that all believers are saints, but only certain Christians who were exceptionally devoted to God during their lives on earth. Nobody really knows how many saints and "beatified ones" there are in Roman Catholicism, but some say there are more 10,000. Joseph is a saint; the Virgin Mary is THE saint par excellence.

After a candidate for sainthood dies, his or her life is investigated for faithfulness to Roman Catholic teaching and outstanding piety and virtue. If a special panel of Vatican theologians approves, the candidate is then declared "venerable."

The next step is "beatification." Since the candidate is supposed to be able to help believers on earth from his or her place in heaven, the candidate needs to demonstrate this by performing a miracle after his or her death (except in the case of martyrs). If a miracle takes place, the candidate is declared "beatified," meaning that "veneration" of him or her is permitted (not commanded) in a particular area of the church (not everywhere).

The next step is "canonization," which the pope may declare if another miracle takes place. Canonization makes the person a "saint" who must be venerated as such by the whole church.

In Roman Catholicism, the saints are persons who acquired more merit while on earth than they needed for their own salvation. They can therefore share this "excess" merit with other believers (Catechism of the Catholic Church 956) and help in their salvation. Roman Catholics are taught to ask the saints to pray for them (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2683), and the saints' prayers are said to be much more efficacious than those of believers still on earth.

Despite the fact that they address prayers directly to saints in the second person, Roman Catholics sometimes claim that this is praying "with" the saints rather than "to" them. In a similar way, Rome teaches people to venerate the saints, direct prayers to them, expect help from them, and attribute to them a role in our salvation--and yet denies that this amounts to "worship." You be the judge.

it is certainly highly commendable to honor those believers who have gone before us, to rejoice that together with them we make up one Church, and to look to their earthly lives as examples for us to follow. The fundamental problem with Rome's teaching about the "saints" is the problem with Rome's teaching in general--its denial that, by faith in Jesus Christ, all believers have already been declared as "saintly" as we need to be to enjoy eternal life with God.