Can the Murdered Amish Girls Be Named as Saints?

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Its now reported by a survivor that two of the murdered Amish girls, one only 13, asked their fiendish killer to shoot them first, hoping their blood would satisfy him and spare the others. Imagining their plea is heartbreaking.

My question isn’t whether these girls are or aren’t saints. If they’re not; who is? Such pure love, courage, faith and selflessness must have been caused them to be borne straight to Christ’s embrace by His angels. My question is: can the Catholic Church formally recognize them?
 
Saints or not, I’m sure that they are special souls up in heaven now. I just feel so sad about what happened. My heart breaks for their families.
 
tee_eff_em said:
I think the Holy Innocents, among others, may disagree.

tee
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Apples and Oranges my friend. The Holy Innocents are honored by the Church because they lost their lives due to Herod wanting to destroy Jesus. They were martyrs in that they not only died for Christ, but did so in his place. They are a very unique situation, an exception, not a rule. But of course there’s always an exception someone can pull out to try to contradict when someone states a correct catholic teaching, even the local vocations directors do it. Only catholics can be canonized. Name a single Holy Innocent that was canonized?

For those who want to read more about the Holy Innocents
newadvent.org/cathen/07419a.htm
 
DWPC said:
Its now reported by a survivor that two of the murdered Amish girls, one only 13, asked their fiendish killer to shoot them first, hoping their blood would satisfy him and spare the others. Imagining their plea is heartbreaking.

My question isn’t whether these girls are or aren’t saints. If they’re not; who is? Such pure love, courage, faith and selflessness must have been caused them to be borne straight to Christ’s embrace by His angels. My question is: can the Catholic Church formally recognize them?
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Pure love, courage and heretical faith does not merit a person heaven.
We can only pray for their souls that God be merciful on them. They were Anabaptists, and held the Anabaptist heresy. Hopefully, God forbid, any one of them died in the state of Mortal Sin because they weren’t able to go to confession!

So an example of “faith” is out. They showed no “faith” worth being canonized for due to them dying in heresy.

I am totally amazed that anyone would even suggest such thing.

I feel for them. I feel for their community. I admire the Amish people for how they stick to their traditions. We should pray that they one day come home to the Catholic Church.

Ken
 
DWPC said:
My question isn’t whether these girls are or aren’t saints. If they’re not; who is? Such pure love, courage, faith and selflessness must have been caused them to be borne straight to Christ’s embrace by His angels. My question is: can the Catholic Church formally recognize them?
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If they are in Heaven, they are saints! Yes, they displayed love, courage, and faith, but the Catholic Church will not officially cannonize them.

Kotton
 
kleary said:
Pure love, courage and heretical faith does not merit a person heaven.
We can only pray for their souls that God be merciful on them. They were Anabaptists, and held the Anabaptist heresy. Hopefully, God forbid, any one of them died in the state of Mortal Sin because they weren’t able to go to confession!

So an example of “faith” is out. They showed no “faith” worth being canonized for due to them dying in heresy.

I am totally amazed that anyone would even suggest such thing.

Ken
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Read your catechism:
819 "Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: “the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements.” Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to “Catholic unity.”
 
I guess the proper answer would be, they might be saints, but they will never be Saints.

The lower case saints are those who through the mystery of God’s mercy are in heaven, the uppercase Saints being the ones canonized by the church.

Since you capitalized your S and asked if they could be named as Saints, the answer is a definitive no as only Catholics can be named as Saints, but that does not mean they aren’t saints because only God knows that.
 
DWPC said:
Its now reported by a survivor that two of the murdered Amish girls, one only 13, asked their fiendish killer to shoot them first, hoping their blood would satisfy him and spare the others. Imagining their plea is heartbreaking.

My question isn’t whether these girls are or aren’t saints. If they’re not; who is? Such pure love, courage, faith and selflessness must have been caused them to be borne straight to Christ’s embrace by His angels. My question is: can the Catholic Church formally recognize them?
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They may very well be Saints, only God knows where their souls are now. However they cannot be recognized as canonized Saints. They also were not killed for their faith in Christ.
 
gelsbern said:
Apples and Oranges my friend. The Holy Innocents are honored by the Church because they lost their lives due to Herod wanting to destroy Jesus. They were martyrs in that they not only died for Christ, but did so in his place. They are a very unique situation, an exception, not a rule. But of course there’s always an exception someone can pull out to try to contradict when someone states a correct catholic teaching, even the local vocations directors do it. Only catholics can be canonized. Name a single Holy Innocent that was canonized?

For those who want to read more about the Holy Innocents
newadvent.org/cathen/07419a.htm
Click to expand...
There is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, so they are in a sense “canonized” as a group.
 
kleary said:
So an example of “faith” is out. They showed no “faith” worth being canonized for due to them dying in heresy.

I am totally amazed that anyone would even suggest such thing.

Ken
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“No faith **worth **being canonized for…”
Calling your response cold is charitable. Anabaptist or not, those girls gave their lives in the truest imitation of Christ and were the fullest expression of His teachings. I do hope you’ll reconsider your sterile view of the “worth” of their faith, even though they may have been raised to believe in a different way.
 
They were sweet young girls, who were murdered…May they rest in the peace of Christ.

God bless.
 
Thanks to all who participated in this discussion.
This thread is now closed.
 
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