Who can Catholics venerate?

[Ti83]

So I’ve been curious about catholicism and veneration and was wondering who can be venerated?

I was watching a YT video and it said that someone doesn’t need to be a saint to be venerated. Does that mean that anyone who I think was a good person and/or good catholic in heaven can be venerated?

Can I venerate my ex catholic turned protestant grandfather? Or protestant preachers and evangelists like Billy Gram? Can I venerate people like Mussolini or Francisco Franco if I think they are good people? what are the limitations?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

A Catholic may privately venerate any person whom they reasonably think is in heaven.
That includes non-Catholics who, to the best of one’s knowledge, lived holy lives.
Billy Graham would be a reasonable choice.
Also your deceased loved ones if they lived a good life on earth.

With respect to more questionable people, such as those who committed a big sin during their lifetime (left the Church, public adultery, mass murder), the issue is that they appear more likely to be in need of our prayers, than to be in heaven already with us asking them to pray for us. In those cases I would be more likely to pray for the person’s soul than to venerate them. In some cases where I am not sure where a person might have ended up, I would do both things.

Catholics can only publicly venerate canonized saints and, to a lesser degree, beatified persons (who can be publicly venerated in certain localities associated with them). There can also be some public religious practices associated with those who have an active sainthood cause but aren’t yet beatified, but those usually take the form of a Mass for their Cause or a public prayer for their cause.

 

[Vico]

So I’ve been curious about catholicism and veneration and was wondering who can be venerated?

I was watching a YT video and it said that someone doesn’t need to be a saint to be venerated. Does that mean that anyone who I think was a good person and/or good catholic in heaven can be venerated?

Can I venerate my ex catholic turned protestant grandfather? Or protestant preachers and evangelists like Billy Gram? Can I venerate people like Mussolini or Francisco Franco if I think they are good people? what are the limitations?

Veneration is for holy angels, and saints.

Modern Catholic Dictionary states:

“In the strict sense saints are those who distinguish themselves by heroic virtue during life and whom the Church honors as saints either by her ordinary universal teaching authority or by a solemn definition called canonization. The Church’s official recognition of sanctity implies that the persons are now in heavenly glory, that they may be publicly invoked everywhere, and that their virtues during life or martyr’s death are a witness and example to the Christian faithful.”

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Veneration is for holy angels, and saints.

This is true if the veneration is public.
Also, the Church permits public veneration of beati in places where the Church permits them to be venerated, typically the diocese where they lived, the religious congregation of which they were a member, etc.

There are no restrictions on private veneration except the Catholic must reasonably believe the person is in Heaven.
If this were not the case, then we would have great difficulty showing “evidence of cult” to even get a person’s sainthood process moving. “Evidence of cult” means that large groups of people are already venerating the deceased person as holy even though they are not beatified or canonized.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

Veneration is for holy angels, and saints.

This is true if the veneration is public.
Also, the Church permits public veneration of beati in places where the Church permits them to be venerated, typically the diocese where they lived, the religious congregation of which they were a member, etc.

There are no restrictions on private veneration except the Catholic must reasonably believe the person is in Heaven.
If this were not the case, then we would have great difficulty showing “evidence of cult” to even get a person’s sainthood process moving. “Evidence of cult” means that large groups of people are already venerating the deceased person as holy even though they are not beatified or canonized.

Yes, the strict sense.

 

[Anesti33]

Prayer to uncanonized people is how their causes for sainthood advance. Everyone who is canonized or beatified because of verified miracles had someone praying to them to obtain that intercession, before their canonization.

I pray to my grandmothers and grandfathers. You could venerate them via a lock of hair, or a photograph, or a letter you saved.

 

[twf]

I suppose “reverence” would be a better word than “venerate” for those who are living…but we definitely honour and show respect to the living as well. Traditionally, you would bow and kiss the hand of a priest (some people still do this)…a Sister might bow to her Mother Superior. In the Eastern tradition, a priest may be reverenced in the same way that one reverences as icon, for a priest is a living icon of Christ.