www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Canonization in Orthodoxy

Aramis holds a rather exalted view of the priority of Latin customs in the Catholic Church. In fact, the centralization of the authority to canonize antedates even the earliest discussion of papal infallibility (13th century) by a century or more, and was done to mitigate the scandal of false saints and relics in the Western Church. As I have said many times, what the Western Church does is its own business, but it has no right to impose its ways on other Churches which live according to a different Tradition.

It does, however, suit your purposes to make everything done in the Catholic Church seem like an exercise of papal infallibility. I no longer have much confidence in your ability to view the matter objectively.

The canonization of saints, per the teaching of the church, is an exercise in magisterial infallibility. It's one of those areas where the EC's are expected to conform, because all Catholics are expected to accept the saints on all the calendars.

Since the expression of collegiality across the Catholic Union is papal promulgation, and since the consistory, last I checked, was not comprised solely of Romans, it's an exercise in the collegial function of the magisterium.

I am not sure that I trust your objectivity really. Are the Eastern Churches permitted to canonise their own Saints or must the final approval come from the Pope?

Who was it that canonised Saint Sharbel in 1977? Was it the Maronite Patriarch? Was it Pope Paul VI?

Your statement is demonstrably false, insofar as each Church maintains its own unique calendars. Many of the Eastern Churches commemorate saints unknown in the West, and vice versa. Moreover, some Churches, such as the Russian Catholic Church, commemorate saints who never were in communion with Rome (e.g., St. John of Kronstadt).

More broadly, you have created a false dichotomy. Even assuming that mutual recognition is required, there is no need for the Eastern Catholic Churches to submit to the Latin forensic process (which, forgive me, is far too prone to political manipulation and looks to my humble eyes too much like challenging God--e.g., the requirement for documented miracles). All that is necessary, if it's any business of the Latin Church, or any other Church, is that the Bishop of Rome, or some body delegated by him, ratifies the decision of the other Church. And all that would do is give legitimize veneration of that saint within the Latin Church.