According to the old Catholic Encyclopedia, “Canonization is a precept of the Roman Pontiff commanding public veneration to be paid an individual by the Universal Church.”
And here:
“Canonization, therefore, creates a cultus which is universal and obligatory.”
It is binding on Catholics. One may not legitimately hold doubts about the validity of a canonization.
In fact, the encyclopedia reports this:
“Is the pope infallible in issuing a decree of canonization? Most theologians answer in the affirmative. It is the opinion of St. Antoninus, Melchior Cano, Suarez, Bellarmine, Bañez, Vasquez, and, among the canonists, of Gonzales Tellez, Fagnanus, Schmalzgrüber, Barbosa, Reiffenstül, Covarruvias (Variar. resol., I, x, no 13), Albitius (De Inconstantiâ in fide, xi, no 205), Petra (Comm. in Const. Apost., I, in notes to Const. I, Alex., III, no 17 sqq.), Joannes a S. Thomâ (on II-II, Q. I, disp. 9, a. 2), Silvester (Summa, s.v. Canonizatio), Del Bene (De Officio Inquisit. II, dub. 253), and many others. In Quodlib. IX, a. 16, St. Thomas says: ‘Since the honour we pay the saints is in a certain sense a profession of faith, i.e., a belief in the glory of the Saints [quâ sanctorum gloriam credimus] we must piously believe that in this matter also the judgment of the Church is not liable to error.’ These words of St. Thomas, as is evident from the authorities just cited, all favouring a positive infallibility, have been interpreted by his school in favour of papal infallibility in the matter of canonization, and this interpretation is supported by several other passages in the same Quodlibet.”
[The St. Thomas that is quoted is the Angelic Doctor.]
sitetest
Could you provide a link to your post?
I would like to see what the Catholic Encyclopedia used as a source for this.
Pope Gregory XVI authorized liturgical veneration for St. Philomena. On 14 February 1961, the Holy See ordered that the name of Saint Philomena be removed from all the liturgical calendars that mentioned her.
Apparently the Vatican doesn’t read the Catholic Encyclopedia.