Infallibility of canonizations

[Genesis315]

Thank you that explains a lot. What if new information on a saint was revealed after their canonization , and this information showed they were not good and holy. Would they still be considered a saint or would the church change it?

They wouldn’t reverse the judgment that the person is Heaven, since that is all that is guaranteed in the decree of canonization. As the old Catholic Encyclopedia explains on this point:
Canonization:

There is no question of heroic virtue in this formula [the canonization rite]; on the other hand, sanctity does not necessarily imply the exercise of heroic virtue, since one who had not hitherto practised heroic virtue would, by the one transient heroic act in which he yielded up his life for Christ, have justly deserved to be considered a saint.

newadvent.org/cathen/02364b.htm

I could see them removing the person from the universal calendar or saying the person’s sins are not to be imitated, but that instead they are an example that even sinners can be saved by grace and mercy. Of course, all saints committed sins to some extent or another (the Bible says even the just man sins seven times a day), and we shouldn’t imitate their sins, but their virtues.

 

[CatholicGeek1]

Canonizations were not always infallible. A few years ago the church removed a number of traditional saints from the calendar. Hence there was a time when canonizations were not infallible.

For an example of the type of saint removed from the calendar, see Barlaam and Josaphat.

rossum

Their feast days were removed from the universal calendar so that there was room to add other feast days. They were not “removed from sainthood” so to speak. They are still saints and their canonizations are still infallible.

 

[CatholicGeek1]

Thank you that explains a lot. What if new information on a saint was revealed after their canonization , and this information showed they were not good and holy. Would they still be considered a saint or would the church change it?

I think a lot of the questions that people have revolve around a misunderstanding of what being a saint means. While it would be very difficult for someone who did not lead a holy and good life to be declared a saint, declaring them a saint does not in and of itself mean that they led a good and holy life. What it means is that the Church is stating definitively that the person being made a saint is in Heaven.

 

[Memaw]

I feel it is my duty to trust the Church but people are questioning the infallibility of canonizations because they wonder why so many recent popes are becoming Saints. Paul VI is also up for canonization.

Because of their heroic holiness. The process is so much easier and faster today then ever before. but miracles still have to occur. God sanctions their being raised to Sainthood. Pope Paul VI suffered far greater than most of us will ever realize. God Bless, Memaw