In many
Roman Catholic circles, there is a debate as to whether canonizations are
infallible. While some (e.g., the SSPX, especially in light of "villains" of the Traditionalist movement, Paul VI and John Paul II, who have recently being canonized) cast doubt on this, most hold to the
view that canonizations are exercises of at least secondary objects of
infallibility, therefore, when the Church proclaims ‘x’ a canonized saint, that
is a declaration protected from error. This was the view of Robert Bellarmine,
who wrote thusly:
CHAPTER IX
It must be Believed that the Pope Cannot Err in the
Canonization of Saints
Canonization of Saints
Now we move to the third point, and there are two opinions of it. The first is of
heretics, who hold that the Pope can err in canonization of the saints. So John
Wycliffe, as Thomas Waldens relates (de
Sacramentalibus, tom. 3, cap. 122) where he says the Pope can err no less
in this matter than Prester John, the King of Ethiopia, or a Turk, or a Sultan.
The Lutherans and Calvinists argue the same thing, seeing that in other similar
matters they attribute no authority to the Pope.
The other is of Catholics, asserting that it
is certain the Church does not err in the canonization of the saints, so much
so that without any doubt, the saints canonized by the Church must be venerated.
This is proven:
1) Because if it were lawful to doubt whether
a canonized saint is really a saint, it would also be lawful to doubt whether
he must be venerated; but this is false. In fact, St. Augustine (epist. 118) says that it is a most
insolent insanity to dispute whether one may do what the whole Church does. We
gather the same thing from St. Bernard, who in a letter to the canons of Lyons
(Epist. 174), speaking about
celebrating feasts in honor of the saints, says: “I securely hold and hand down
what I have received from the Church.” Besides, all the fathers venerated
saints without any hesitation, and assert that they must be venerated. Lastly,
we are held to obey the Pope when he appoints the feast days of some saint, just
the same, we cannot do something against conscience, therefore, we cannot doubt
whether a man who has been canonized by the Church may and must be venerated.
2) We prove it from two unsuitable consequents:
in the first place, the saints are not deprived of the suffrage of the living
since we are not allowed to pray for those who have been canonized, just as St.
Augustine says (Sermon 17), while
commenting on the words of the Apostle: “he that prays for a martyr does him an
injury.” And the same must be understood on all canonized saints, as Innocent
teaches (c. Cum Marthae, de celebrat.
Missarum). But if the Church could err in this it would defraud the man
that is held as a saint and is not in fact, when no one prays for him. Next,
the living would be defrauded of the intercessions of the Saints; for if the
Church could err in this they would often call upon the damned in place of the
blessed. Besides, when the Church asks in the prayers for the feasts of the
saints that just as God glorified them in heaven, he would likewise bestow
grace upon us here on earth, it would pray for a curse in place of a blessing.
And although it would not seek that curse, except materially, nevertheless,
this whole thing looks absurd.
3) Great miracles that have been diligently
examined make the matter evidently believable, as we have shown elsewhere. But
saints are not ordinarily canonized by the Pope unless they are illuminated
with great and certain miracles. And it is confirmed, for if we believe without
any hesitation that Caesar and Pompey existed because we have it from the
common consensus of historians, who themselves were men and could lie, why do
we not believe without any hesitation that God himself witnesses the fact
through miracles when there is no reason to suspect the contrary?
4) It proves from the preparation. Before the
saints are canonized, fasts and public prayers are appointed and the whole
matter is very diligently examined for a long time, but it is not credible that
God does not come to his Church, which is so disposed and begs for him to do
so.
Lastly, it is proven a posteriori: because in other matters, in which the Popes can err,
at some time errors got detected in that business; but in this no error has
ever been detected.
But some object with a passage of St.
Augustine: “Many bodies are honored on earth, whose souls are tortured in hell.”
I respond: This passage may not be a
quote from Augustine, for I have never found it in his works. But whether it is
nor not, it can be understood to be about the impious, who are honored in very proud
tombs, when still their souls are tortured in hell; or in the bodies or uncanonised
saints; or on bodies that have been substituted for the bodies of saints; or at
length, on the martyrs of the Donatists, who were honored by heretics as
martrys when really their souls were tortured in hell. See more on the argument
of this point in St. Thomas (Quodlibet,
9, q. ult., art. ult.), St. Augustine of Ancona (Suma de potestate Ecclesiae, q. 14 art 4), John Driedo, de Ecclesiastic. Dogmatibus 4, 1), St.
Antoninus (Summae Theologiae 3. par. tit.
12 c. 8), Cajetan (tractat de.
ingulgentibus, ad Julium, c. 8), Sylvester (Canonizatio), and Melchior Cano (de Locis, lib. 5, final chapter). (Robert Bellarmine, On the Canonization and Veneration of the
Saints [trans. Ryan Grant; Port Falls, Idaho: Mediatrix Press, 2019], 97-99)
Early in his
treatise, in chapter VII (“The Church Rightly
Canonizes Saints”), Bellarmine draws a parallel between the Church’s
canonization of saints with God, in
holy scripture, canonizing saints in Acts 7:
God himself willed sacred writers to record,
in every detail, the glorious life and death of those who lived in their times,
as is clear from Ecclesiasticus, who in chapter 44 canonized a great many
saints, such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Phineas,
Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, etc. Likewise, in the New
Testament, St. Luke canonized St. Stephen in the book of Acts, as well as James
the Greater, and also Peter, Paul, Barnabas, Silas and others; therefore, it is trustworthy that God
willed it to be done afterwards in the same mode. (Ibid., 90, emphasis
added)
On the topic
of the canonization of the saints and how it resulted in the development of
papal infallibility, see:
Donald S.
Prudlo, Certain
Sainthood: Canonization and the Origins of Papal Infallibility in the Medieval
Church (Cornell University Press, 2016)