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Are Canonizations Infallible?: Revisiting a Disputed Question
For a long time now, the majority position of Catholic theologians has been that canonizations conducted by the pope are infallible and inerrant. A minority current has always existed that disputes this view. Perennial difficulties with the nature and extension of papal infallibility as well as problems peculiar to recent decades in the Church make it timely to reexamine a debate that has lain dormant for too long, and to give proponents of the minority view an opportunity to make their case. The twelve contributors, sharing a desire for a candid and searching inquiry, argue both sides of the question fairly and fully. Each author brings distinct facts, observations, and arguments to the conversation. The result is a panoramic review of the historical, doctrinal, liturgical, and moral aspects of canonization, which displays a greater complexity than summaries in encyclopedias and manuals would suggest. This book is published as a spur to intensive theological engagement with a quaestio disputata that should not be prematurely treated as definitively solved.
Essays by Phillip Campbell - Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P. - Roberto de Mattei - William Matthew Diem - Christopher Ferrara - Msgr. Brunero Gherardini - Fr. John Hunwicke - Peter A. Kwasniewski - John R.T. Lamont - Joseph Shaw - Fr. Jean-François Thomas, S.J. - José Antonio Ureta
Essays by Phillip Campbell - Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P. - Roberto de Mattei - William Matthew Diem - Christopher Ferrara - Msgr. Brunero Gherardini - Fr. John Hunwicke - Peter A. Kwasniewski - John R.T. Lamont - Joseph Shaw - Fr. Jean-François Thomas, S.J. - José Antonio Ureta
274 pages, Paperback
Published July 28, 2021
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About the author
Peter Kwasniewski
55 books79 followersDr. Peter A. Kwasniewski holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Thomas Aquinas College in California and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
After teaching at the International Theological Institute in Austria and for the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Austrian Program, he joined the founding team of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, where he currently serves as Professor of Theology and Choirmaster. He is a board member and scholar of The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, which is publishing the Opera Omnia of the Angelic Doctor, and a tutor for the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies.
Kwasniewski has taught and written extensively on a wide variety of subjects, especially Thomistic thought, sacramental and liturgical theology, the history and aesthetics of music, and the social doctrine of the Church. He has published two books with The Catholic University of America Press and a volume of music for liturgical use, Sacred Choral Works (Corpus Christi Watershed, 2014). His latest book, Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church (Angelico Press, 2014), is being translated into eight languages.
Dr. Kwasniewski writes for several major weblogs, including New Liturgical Movement and Rorate Caeli.
After teaching at the International Theological Institute in Austria and for the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Austrian Program, he joined the founding team of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, where he currently serves as Professor of Theology and Choirmaster. He is a board member and scholar of The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, which is publishing the Opera Omnia of the Angelic Doctor, and a tutor for the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies.
Kwasniewski has taught and written extensively on a wide variety of subjects, especially Thomistic thought, sacramental and liturgical theology, the history and aesthetics of music, and the social doctrine of the Church. He has published two books with The Catholic University of America Press and a volume of music for liturgical use, Sacred Choral Works (Corpus Christi Watershed, 2014). His latest book, Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church (Angelico Press, 2014), is being translated into eight languages.
Dr. Kwasniewski writes for several major weblogs, including New Liturgical Movement and Rorate Caeli.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 23, 2022
This book collects a number of articles from the past ten years or so that try to grapple with the problems of modern canonizations. What is the problem? That canonizations have traditionally been considered infallible, but many of today's canonizations are clearly questionable.
The essays do a good job of pointing out why Catholics do not need to consider modern canonizations to be infallible:
1. Canonizations have never been unanimously considered infallible. There have always been some theologians who have thought that they are not so. That they are infallible is a common opinion of theologians, but not proxima fidei or de fide.
2. They do not fulfill the conditions for infallibility laid down by Vatican I.
3. The traditional process for canonization, the process which many theologians of the past considered to yield an infallible judgment, has been radically changed. It is now much less serious, because it has removed the devil's advocate, it has reduced the number of miracles required, it accepts miracles with far less rigor, and it evaluates what is needed for sainthood very differently from the past.
To the third point, in the past, Popes who were considered for canonization were judged for their sanctity partly on how well they ruled the Church. Prospero Lambertini, who later became Pope Benedict XIV, and who wrote a landmark and definitive treatise on canonization before being elected, notes that a saintly Pope will rule the Church well. But, the Conciliar Popes, who have almost all been canonized now, were not assessed in this way. It was particularly noted for Pope Paul VI that he did not govern the Church well, but he was "canonized" anyway.
Furthermore, canonizations of the past required that there be some popular cultus in honor of the candidate before he be proposed for canonization. Now, however, this is not necessary, and candidates for saints are more often determined by who puts money forward for their cause or the fact that the candidate serves some political interest.
In short, these essays make it clear that a Catholic can question modern canonizations with a clean conscience.
The essays do a good job of pointing out why Catholics do not need to consider modern canonizations to be infallible:
1. Canonizations have never been unanimously considered infallible. There have always been some theologians who have thought that they are not so. That they are infallible is a common opinion of theologians, but not proxima fidei or de fide.
2. They do not fulfill the conditions for infallibility laid down by Vatican I.
3. The traditional process for canonization, the process which many theologians of the past considered to yield an infallible judgment, has been radically changed. It is now much less serious, because it has removed the devil's advocate, it has reduced the number of miracles required, it accepts miracles with far less rigor, and it evaluates what is needed for sainthood very differently from the past.
To the third point, in the past, Popes who were considered for canonization were judged for their sanctity partly on how well they ruled the Church. Prospero Lambertini, who later became Pope Benedict XIV, and who wrote a landmark and definitive treatise on canonization before being elected, notes that a saintly Pope will rule the Church well. But, the Conciliar Popes, who have almost all been canonized now, were not assessed in this way. It was particularly noted for Pope Paul VI that he did not govern the Church well, but he was "canonized" anyway.
Furthermore, canonizations of the past required that there be some popular cultus in honor of the candidate before he be proposed for canonization. Now, however, this is not necessary, and candidates for saints are more often determined by who puts money forward for their cause or the fact that the candidate serves some political interest.
In short, these essays make it clear that a Catholic can question modern canonizations with a clean conscience.
Displaying 1 of 1 review