Sainthood question

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gmcbroom

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Hello all it’s been awhile since I’ve posted so bear with me.

St. John Paul 2 said there is a need for saints in blue jeans. He’s right. In a time where 80% of American Catholics don’t believe in the real presence; relativism doctrine and indifferentism is everywhere; we need to go back to school. Just to learn and practice the basics of the faith.

I think people forget that the saints are closer than you think. In fact even politicians can become saints. Take the cause for Alberto Marvelli. He died decades ago and was a Catholic layman. He served his church and community by helping the poor. He is currently a Blessed due to a miracle attributed to his intercession.

Now my question. I don’t have any Catholic relatives who are deceased but for those that due I am aware it’s customary for a diocese to wait 5 years after they die before a cause is opened. So is it safe once that time is over to ask for the intercession of a deceased catholic relative or catholic friend If we have an issue requiring divine help? Is there a certain way to phrase the request? Do we need to talk to the local diocese before we make any request or petition like that? Is asking for their aid through prayer necromancy? Your not trying to summon them just ask for their intersession.
 
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I ask deceased relatives and friends for help often .They were good people of faith who loved God and led good lives and I’m sure are either in purgatory or heaven .It goes both ways asking for intercession ,also praying for them in case they aren’t in heaven yet.
God bless.
 
There are many Saints in heaven who are not officially declared Saints by the Church. They are all part of the Church including those in purgatory who are assured of the Sainthood in heaven. Consider how we ask our friends, Church, and even here on CAF to pray for us. We are all still sinners, yet our prayers are heard by God and he does answer them.
So there is nothing wrong in asking deceased relatives to pray for us which both the Saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory can and do. Just use your own words, as you would if you were speaking to them face to face. e.g. “Aunty May, I ask you to pray for me that God will grant me ____”.

Asking for their help is not necromancy. Definition of necromancy

Praying to Dead Folks Tim Staples • 3/17/2013

Also a spiritual work of mercy is praying for the living and the dead. So apart from The Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom else would we be asking intercession from when praying for ourselves or others, if not the Saints in heaven?

This is private prayer - completely different to public prayer. OSV - Saints in Waiting 2009 " Once beatified, the individual can be venerated by particular groups or in particular regions."
 
You don’t have to wait 5 years. You can pray right now for the intercession of anybody you reasonably think is in heaven. That could of course be a canonized saint like St. Therese, or it could be your deceased grandfather or parish priest.

You don’t need to talk to the local diocese before making such prayers. It’s a private devotion. The sainthood processes with the 5 year wait time and so forth are for saints who are being proposed for PUBLIC devotion, which means such things as big beatification and canonization ceremonies, churches named after them, a feast day with Mass said in their honor, and whole groups of people publicly praying for the intercession of the person.

When the Church canonizes a saint, there is a whole process that they have to go through to make absolutely sure that the Church doesn’t publicly promote devotion to someone who is an embarrassment to the Church. Before the Church put these processes in place, local bishops would declare all kinds of people saints, including a monk who died in a drunken brawl, and even someone’s dog. It was getting out of hand and making the Church look bad.

Asking your dead relative to pray for you or “help you” is NOT “necromancy”. Necromancy means calling up the dead. If I were calling up my dead husband to appear to me and answer questions, that would be necromancy, and it’s wrong. If I’m simply talking to him and asking him to pray for me and help me, that’s perfectly fine. I’m not commanding his spirit to appear or any of that, I’m just talking to him in Heaven where I hope and pray he is, and have good reason to think he is.

Oh, by the way, if you have Protestant relatives who are deceased and you have reason to think they are in heaven, you can ask for their intercession too. You aren’t limited to just Catholic deceased persons when you make private prayers. My husband was Protestant, so was my grandma, and I ask both of them for their help.
 
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I have a brother who was born, baptized and died within the same day. I pray to him sometimes.
 
No prayer is ever wasted. Feel free to ask for their intercession! Canonization is only official recognition of sainthood, and does not address the mercy or action of God immediatly upon our “death.”

You can pray for them, and if they are in purgatory, it will help them and be a spiritual work of mercy. If they are already in heaven, your prayers cannot help, but God will see to it that your prayer is not wasted.
 
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