Little Gods?
1st May, 2011 - Posted by Wolf Paul - 1 Comment
Update: see below.
A couple of days ago I referred to the fact thatin popular Roman-Catholic piety “Blesseds” and “Saints” are turned into little auxiliar Gods. This observation has just been confirmed dramatically:
According to today’s “ORF Mittagsjournal” (a lunchtime radio news program) the beatification of John Paul II this morning by Pope Benedict XVI means “he may now officially be worshipped.“
Of course the ORF news department is not an official organ of the Roman Catholic Church, but it reflects the theological ignorance of most Austrian Catholics who believe that Saints and Blesseds may be and indeed should be worshipped.
I can understand that one wants to present outstanding Christians to the faithful as models of faith, but then you need to have adequate catechesis to prevent people coming up with such nonsense and end up worshipping fellow creatures instead of the Creator.
Update: In the 2 p.m. news the term “woshipped” had mutated to “venerated” — obviously someone paid attention and intervened.
Posted on: 1st May, 2011
Filed under: Blog English, Christian Faith, Christian Unity
Werner
May 1st, 2011 at 13:50
The Catholic answer to this is that there are several different words (in the Greek, of course) for worship. And so it is a lesser kind of worship that they offer (more like honour and respect) to the so-called saints.
I believe that whenever we attribute qualities that belong to Deity alone to humans or any other created thing, it’s idolatry. To assume that a loved one in heaven is omnipresent and can hear and grant our prayers is doing just that.
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