Junipero Serra declared to be "a saint"

[MorningGlory]

This explains briefly about the genocide of california indians.

http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/calif.html

 

Interestingly, indians are protesting the canonization of serra.

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/23/native_groups_protest_pope_francis_canonization

That's some good information there, A.J.  I went to school in San Francisco and I remember studying the missions and the Spanish Catholics that converted so many natives.   Never heard of Father Serra though, until now.

[MorningGlory]

I personally don't understand the whole concept of canonization.  Serra was just a man and, as such, is no more exalted in the eyes of God than you or I. 

Cannonization doesn't exalt them higher than we are in the eyes of God.

Actually it does.  These saints enter into the Liturgy of the RCC and they can be prayed to. Check out the Catholic Encyclopedia for a detailed discussion.

Praying to saints is praying to dead people.  We are not to pray to anyone but the One True God. 

[missmuffet]

You guys you do know that we as born again Christians are all Saints.Those "Saints" in heaven are no better than us.

[MorningGlory]

You guys you do know that we as born again Christians are all Saints.Those "Saints" in heaven are no better than us.

This is true.  They were once people just as we are.  No one is exalted above man except God.

[missmuffet]

You guys you do know that we as born again Christians are all Saints.Those "Saints" in heaven are no better than us.

This is true.  They were once people just as we are.  No one is exalted above man except God.

That is correct 

[ayin jade]

You guys you do know that we as born again Christians are all Saints.Those "Saints" in heaven are no better than us.

That is of course assuming that any of the catholic saints are actually saved. Not everyone in a church, protestant or catholic, is a believer in Jesus.

[missmuffet]

You guys you do know that we as born again Christians are all Saints.Those "Saints" in heaven are no better than us.

That is of course assuming that any of the catholic saints are actually saved. Not everyone in a church, protestant or catholic, is a believer in Jesus.

A born again Christian is different than a person who just says they are a Christian.

[AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken]

Good question other one. It's a question I wonder about as well. Who decides ( one earth ) which of the departed have gone to Heaven and can be prayed to ?

This is the very point of the canonization. It's a declaration by the Pope that the person being canonized is in heaven and can be prayed to for their intersession. 

Thanks. So the Pope can "declare" who is in Heaven. Can he also "declare" who is "not"? 

Maybe I am not understanding correctly, but scripture says;

John 3:13 - "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man."

[Ezra]

You guys you do know that we as born again Christians are all Saints.Those "Saints" in heaven are no better than us.

That is of course assuming that any of the catholic saints are actually saved. Not everyone in a church, protestant or catholic, is a believer in Jesus.

What is interesting is that in order to be canonized a Catholic saint should normally produce at least one miracle:. 

The remaining step before beatification is the approval of a miracle, evidence of the intercessory power of the Venerable Servant of God and thus of his or her union after death with God. Those who propose a miracle do so in the diocese where it is alledged to have occurred, not in the diocese of the Cause, unless the same. The diocese of the candidate miracle then conducts its own tribunals, scientific and theological.

https://www.ewtn.com/johnpaul2/cause/process.asp

The Pope skipped this requirement for Serra:

Why is Serra being canonized now?

Francis didn't just resume the process of turning Serra into a saint — he fast-tracked it. The Catholic Church traditionally requires that any would-be saint get credited with accomplishing two miracles after he's died (usually something along the lines of healing a parishioner through prayer or relics). Then the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has to vet the nomination before choosing whether to approve the person for sainthood.

When it came to Junipero Serra, Pope Francis skipped most of those steps. Francis simply announced at the beginning of this year that he was going to canonize Serra. Serra only has one recent miracle to his name: the 2013 healing of a Native American woman who prayed to a relic of his. And the Congregation for the Causes of Saints didapprove Serra's canonization before it formally happened Wednesday — but they did it four months after Francis announced he was going to be canonized anyway, and even after the pope personally conducted a mass commemorating Serra.

It's obvious that Francis wanted to be able to canonize Serra during his trip to the US, making Serra the first saint canonized on American soil. 

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/24/9391995/junipero-serra-saint-pope-francis

[hmbld]

 

 Serra only has one recent miracle to his name: the 2013 healing of a Native American woman who prayed to a relic of his.http://www.vox.com/2015/9/24/9391995/junipero-serra-saint-pope-francis

 

 

Far too easy to see the problem here.