Calling Someone a Saint When They Aren't?

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This IS misleading. People go to purgatory. The assumption all go straight to heaven is a bad premise. It causes people to think why even live a Christian Life if it can just easily be assumed. IMO
 
A baptized child that hasn’t attained the age of reason, per Church teaching, would go straight to heaven, as in the OP’s case (although age wasn’t mentioned). I think I’m quite blessed that decisions about who’s in heaven, purgatory, or elsewhere are above my pay grade, and if it comforts someone to use a scripturally based and acceptable term to describe their loved one, far be it from me to act uncharitably by trying to ‘correct’ them.
 
you have official and unofficial saints, there is nothing wrong with asking those deceased in Christ to pray for us and nothing wrong with looking favorably upon the deceased as a saint if they are inspiring others to Christ. The entire thing about being a saint is that the persons life was one that was lived for Christ and lead others to Christ.
 
people may go to purgatory or may go straight to heaven, no one knows who goes where first and why. though people are not taught that purgatory is an option, so there is an assumption that once catholic you go to heaven and that is it. not teaching about purgatory and why it is there, and not teaching that no one knows who goes to purgatory or heaven first and why can be a problem.
 
So what your saying is that if someone uses drugs, kills people, lives a bad life just be happy heaven and hell are above your pay grade and make them feel happy? Think there’s a point where that logic might not work?
 
Who said any of that? I’m talking about a CHILD under age 7…
 
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A private person in a private capacity has the right to make guesses about who is in Heaven, and to informally call someone “saint.” A school principal making a public address to schoolkids does not have that right.

There are kids under the age of seven who have reached the age of reason, and some of them are very nasty customers. I had a seesaw deliberately dropped on my leg by a fellow six year old, and she knew what she was doing. Never apologized, either, even though I almost had my bone shattered. So prayers for the souls of dead youngsters is always appropriate.

That said… St. Augustine knew a woman who had had breast cancer, and whose doctor told her she would soon die. She got a message from God that she should go stand outside the Easter Vigil and ask for a blessing from the first newly baptized woman she saw. She did this, and her tumor disappeared instantly.

So it is not just theoretical to say that a baptized person who has committed no mortal sin is a saint.
 
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A “saint” is any deceased soul who is now in heaven.

Given that this deceased person was first of all, a child who may not have had much chance to commit mortal sins, and second of all, may well have served any purgatory time on earth due to her cancer, it’s a reasonable assumption that this child is now in heaven.

This was also a private devotion for the children and faculty at the school. It was not an official public liturgy of the Church, such as a Mass. At an official public liturgy, it would be forbidden to address someone as “Saint so-and-so, pray for us” , unless they were actually a canonized saint of the Church. But at a private devotion, you can ask for prayers of anyone you have a good reason to think is now in Heaven. This is actually how holy people get started on the path to canonization - people believe a deceased holy person is in Heaven because they led a holy life on earth, and ask them privately for their prayers and help.

In view of all of the above, it was fine to call her saint in this context and ask for her prayers, because it was a private devotion and you have good reason to think she’s in heaven. I myself could right now privately ask my deceased parents for prayers in the same way, e.g. “Saint MomsName and Saint DadsName, pray for me” and it would be fine.
 
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Mintaka said:
A school principal making a public address to schoolkids does not have that right.
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On what are you basing this? Do you have a source?

The school principal making an address to the school kids is still considered a “private devotional” context as far as I know. If the school principal made this announcement at a Mass, this would be a problem because it would be a “public” liturgy of the Church.
 
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pianistclare said:
Solanus Casey has been canonized lready.
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He’s only been beatified. He’s not quite to canonization yet. Needs another miracle.

Nevertheless, since beatified people can be honored in some public prayers and liturgies of the Church, he is more similar to a canonized person than to someone who isn’t on the path of sainthood like Max’s grandma or my mom and dad.
 
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idifacs_john said:
though people are not taught that purgatory is an option, so there is an assumption that once catholic you go to heaven and that is it.
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Huh? Catholics teach that purgatory is an option. Every Catholic I know is aware of purgatory. Whether they want to accept that they and their loved ones might go there is something else again.

It’s the non-Catholic Christians who do not believe in purgatory and teach that you are either saved and go to heaven, or you aren’t saved and go to hell.
 
I never learned that purgatory was still a doctrine until I was well into my 20s and moved to a different part of the country. Before then, I had only heard of it in history class in a public high school. Every Catholic funeral I’ve ever been to lists in the program “born to eternal life xx/xx/xxxx.” This was in a very Catholic part of the country as well (I think the population is around 40% Catholic).
 
greenrangerx said:
Every Catholic funeral I’ve ever been to lists in the program “born to eternal life xx/xx/xxxx.”
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I’ve never seen this at a Catholic funeral; in fact I’ve never seen a Catholic funeral with a “program” in many years of going to funerals. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I don’t think it is the norm or at least not everywhere.

At the funeral home there is generally a prayer card with a prayer to say for the person’s soul. The prayer sometimes references purgatory explicitly, but even if it doesn’t, obviously if the person was in heaven already there is no need to say a prayer for them. The cards also don’t say anything like “born to eternal life” for Catholics.
 
I didn’t know Catholics could have funerals in a funeral home, to be honest. Everyone I’ve known who has died has had a funeral in a church with Mass celebrated. There’s usually a meal afterwards in the church basement.
 
Catholics normally have a viewing/ visitation at the funeral home like anybody else. It usually is over one or two days prior to the funeral. Sometimes a priest or deacon will come to the funeral home and offer some prayers during this visitation time. Prayer cards are handed out at this visitation, and people who visit can kneel and pray there for the deceased.

After the viewing/ visitation at the funeral home, there is often a funeral Mass, which takes place at the church.

In some cases where it is not possible or feasible to have a Mass for one reason or another, the priest, or a deacon, can come to the funeral home and conduct a short service. Or the service could be held at the church with the casket being moved to the church from the funeral home.

Finally, there can be in some cases, depending on many factors like the location of the cemetery, whether it is Catholic, the local custom etc., a graveside service with the priest going out to the cemetery and leading more prayers.

When my father died, we had the priest come pray at the funeral home, then the funeral Mass itself the next day, and the graveside service. When my husband died, he was not a Catholic so we did not have Mass, but I wanted a Catholic service. The priest came out to the funeral home and conducted a Catholic blessing service there, because there was a logistical issue with getting the casket to the church. Edited to add that he also did the prayers with respect to the interment, but did them over the casket in the back of the hearse before it left so we did not have to utilize the chapel at the cemetery (again, logistical problems + cost).

Later we had a second wake in another state at which the local Catholic deacon came out and conducted a prayer service at the funeral home.
 
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JMJ4me said:
So a little girl at my school recently died of cancer. Everyone was upset for the day, and we said a decade of the rosary. This is all great, but during what we call “reflection”, they said “St. (her name here) pray for us”. We are all pretty confident she is in heaven and I definitely don’t have any problems asking her to pray for us… but calling her saint?
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I don’t have a problem with that. By virtue of her Baptism and the promise of God that those who dies believing and in the state of grace, will have eternal life, we can call her saint. Not a big deal. We are not to judge her but to build on God’s promise for her. This is why Christians are set apart, it is because of their belief.

God bless.
 
I wonder who the fastest person was - to be canonized a Saint.

I watched a Mother Teressa movie - pretty good -
“ In the Name of God’s Poor “
She died at age 87. Talk about a hard worker.
I think her feast day is on Labor Day weekend.
 
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