Venerating Holy Protestant Christians as Saints

[mrsdizzyd]

mrsdizzyd:

St. Gregory of Narek lived before the schism. We share many saints with the orthodox especially before the schism.

St. Gregory of Narek belonged to the Armenian Orthodox, which have been in schism from Rome since the 5th century.

He is a post-Schism non-Catholic Doctor of the Catholic Church.

Quite right. I had forgotten about the history of the Armenians.

Still, the Armenian Orthodox declared him a saint and he is venerated by Armenian Catholics who came back into communion with St. Peter.

Controversial to be sure, but in essence we are still talking about someone who was under the Catholic umbrella when Pope Francis made him a doctor of the Church.

 

[ChristMyLife]

While I don’t quite fully agree with everything you wrote, it was clearly written in a Christian spirit of charity. I sensed no pride, hostility or mean spirit at all in your comment.

I can’t fully respond now because I have to watch Terrific Tom and Beautiful Belichick lay the smackdown on the Steelers.

 

[Trying2overcome]

Well, at least Gregory Palamas and Gregory of Narek had valid sacraments. I wouldn’t ever venerate a protestant, personally.

 

[Thom18]

MagdalenaRita:

I can’t say much about the lives of these people you mention here but I am very hard pressed to believe that they even come close to the holy Catholic saints of the past.

These Saints were every bit as much God’s Children as even St. Peter himself.

These children of God refused to enter into the Church which He founded. There’s the most fundamental difference between Catholics and Protestants, and you aren’t at liberty to ignore this fact. As “good” as we may call those listed in the OP, we can only say that they were good by earthly standards. They believed and/or taught false doctrines- you aren’t at liberty to ignore this. Perhaps this isn’t a big deal to you, but it is to God, who has spent thousands of years teaching us exactly what we must do, only for those listed in the OP to reject- if not rebel against- the New Israel, His Church.

This is serious business, and you need to understand how some of us are shocked that someone would believe civil rights leaders or others (no matter how moral) far exceed in greatness those who gave their lives to build up God’s Bride, the Church.

 

[ChristMyLife]

Perhaps this isn’t a big deal to you, but it is to God

Ah, I see.

You know the mind of God and speak for him about what is a “big deal” to him.

Are you 100% sure it’s not instead that it is a big deal for YOU, and you are projecting your thoughts onto God and presuming to know His Mind?

 

[ChristMyLife]

others (no matter how moral) far exceed in greatness those who gave their lives to build up God’s Bride, the Church.

Whoa, who said that?

I’d be shocked to hear someone say that too.

 

[MagdalenaRita]

Whoa, who said that?

I’d be shocked to hear someone say that too.

So, in your defense in your quote you didn’t say “far exceed in greatness” but “give any of the great Catholic saints a run for their money”.

That is what threw me also because that phrase typically means someone is as good or great as to maybe even being better than.

With that the question is how can someone not in the Catholic church, probably even protesting against it, be considered by the Catholic church as great as the greatest saints in said Catholic church?

 

[Thom18]

Thom18:

Perhaps this isn’t a big deal to you, but it is to God

Ah, I see.

You know the mind of God and speak for him about what is a “big deal” to him.

Are you 100% sure it’s not instead that it is a big deal for YOU, and you are projecting your thoughts onto God and presuming to know His Mind?

I never claimed to “speak for God”. I pointed out that God has spent thousands of years teaching us what we must do, and that I have never gotten the impression that refusing to enter His Church and rejecting many of His teachings is part of His plan for us. It’s contradictory.

 

[ChristMyLife]

I believe the 4 people I listed were heroic people who held to true Christian orthodoxy.

I can’t find it in my heart to say CS Lewis or MLK were not heroic people or were heretics.

 

[Thom18]

I believe the 4 people I listed were heroic people who held to true Christian orthodoxy.

I can’t find it in my heart to say CS Lewis or MLK were not heroic people or were heretics.

If they did, then they would have been Catholic. They would have confessed that the Eucharist is the flesh and blood of Jesus, that the “prince of the apostles, the mouth of the apostolic choir”, Peter (and his successors), was given the charge by Jesus to feed His sheep (head the Church), etc. They were not adherents to Christian orthodoxy, but swept up in later doctrines.