Op-ed: Sainthood for Mother Teresa exposes the delusion of religion

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | Sep 10 2016 | Gregory A. Clark

[Robert DeLong]

Okay you are right I am wrong.

However, I said over and over that I was speaking in general terms, and chose the Catholic church because they are the ones the world recognizes the most with regards to Sainthood. I also stated that it was not the exclusive domain of the Catholic church as well. But in literal terms you are correct.

[Robert DeLong]

One last thing:

Also, several people "officially" named saints by the Catholic Church in the past, like St. Christopher and Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, are no longer seen as such.

It's comforting to know that God is not perfect and makes mistakes as well. Should he decide negatively towards me on my judgement day I will tell him he had better look again because he obviously has me confused with someone else.

Since you have convinced me that all of these proclamations come from God directly, and not mankind at all, that must be the only explanation. When he shows me the video or whatever it is that he has, I will just proclaim that I always knew there was an evil twin of me in the world. Perhaps one is capable of conning him too. At that point what would I have to lose!!!

[BillyBoy]

>> While I never claimed to be an expert on Sainthood or the Catholic church, as that is not my religion of faith, is it not the Pope that makes that announcement <<

That part is true. After an extensive investigation process conducted by the Catholic Church, the decision to officially honor someone as a saint is made by committee, and then the public announcement and ceremony is done by the Pope himself.

This process works the same way in the Coptic Orthodox Church as well. Their leader doesn't unilaterally decide by himself who is a "saint", but after the church conducts a through investigation and reaches a conclusion, the Coptic Orthodox Pope is the one who makes the announcement and conducts the formal ceremony.

I'm not sure how the process works in other Orthodox churches, or in some protestant churches that name saints, since they don't have a "Pope", per say.

During the first millennia of Christianity, the decision was made by local Christian communities and the public announcement of sainthood done by local bishops, so many saints from that period are obscure or forgotten by history, and were never venerated worldwide. It's one of the reasons its possible to get a definitive list of all the people officially proclaimed as "saints" by Christian churches over the last 2000 years.

[Robert DeLong]

Okay, that is my whole point, that it is humans that come to the decision of whom they bestow Sainthood upon. It does not come from God directly. How that process unfolds varies from religion to religion, and even within various sects of the same religion.

That in a nutshell was what I was saying in my very first post. If I made errors in the mechanics it is because there are so many variations. Thus I was giving a very broad manner, and that for Catholics it is the Pope that announces it. I said that because whenever I read about it they usually report that the Pope is announcing it.