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American Reform – The Infallibility of Canonizations — De Groot, 1909

“God, who fits means to their end, will provide, for the sake of safeguarding the truth in the Church, that the Church’s judgment concerning the saints not be corrupted by any error or falsehood of witnesses. For the Church is guided in judgments of this kind ‘chiefly through the instinct of the Holy Spirit”; and “divine providence preserves the Church, lest she be deceived in such matters through the fallible testimony of men.’ St. Thomas, loc. cit.” — Fr. JV De Groot, O.P.

1909 portrait of Fr. JV De Groot, O.P., by Jan Toorop

Introduction

In Catholic circles today the question of infallibility is periodically discussed in relation to the canonization of Saints. Owing to the present Crisis in the Church, many have been tempted to deviate — often unknowingly — from the standard, pre-conciliar teaching surrounding canonizations, that is, primarily their authority and what the life of a Catholic saint evidences, along with the profound danger of denying both. Two streams of errant thought are common, especially amongst self-styled traditional Catholics:

  1. Those who chafe at the idea that the sentences are indeed infallible, often citing a change in the investigatory processes following the Second Vatican Council.

    Originally published in The Journal of American Reform. Read original article