Saints Struck off Vatican List
The Vatican has dropped several saints from its officially approved list of 6538 saints, reports The Times of London, either because they are no longer deemed saintly enough or because they are bogus. To the distress of many Roman Catholics in southern Italy, one of those struck off the list is Saint Philomena, whom they venerate as the unofficial patron saint of young mothers. They pray to her for help, and many of their daughters have been named after her.
We are not surprised that the Vatican refuses to give details of the discarded saints. The release of more information would no doubt further confirm how unscriptural and farcical is the canonising and worshipping of saints. Rome subtly argues that her people do not worship saints. But playing with words cannot camouflage the fact that by praying to saints they are indeed worshipping them. “We should pay religious veneration to [the saints] collectively and separately”, says one Roman Catholic publication, “and we believe also that they can and do intercede for us, that they hear our prayers.” But, as one Protestant writer says, “There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that any departed human being, however good, has any further contact with affairs on this earth, or that he can hear so much as one prayer from earth”.
May the days soon come when Roman Catholics worldwide will address their prayers to God alone, in the name of the “one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”.
NMR
Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – December 2001