According to the official Roman Catholic Church doctrine, does the Pope actually create a saint in heaven when he makes it official on earth (because it says in the Bible that Jesus said to Peter, “You are a rock (petr being the Greek root meaning rock, as in petroleum, petrify, etc.), and on this rock will I found my church. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
So do the Catholics think the Pope makes the saint or do they say that God already did it in heaven but the Pope is just announcing it on earth?
Also, making saints has nothing to do with loosing or binding, so does this passage of the scripture apply to sanctification?
In a somewhat related question, do Protestants have saints? Their churches have saint names, as in the case of the Episcopalians and the Lutherans at least and probably some others, but is their list of saints different from the Catholics? If Father Pio is made into a saint, will, say, Lutherans start praying to him or do something else that has to do with whatever people do with saints?
The canonization of a saint (i.e. adding their name to the canon (list) of saints is intended to recognize that they have already attained heaven, and did so in a way that they may now inspire us to follow them.
The pope does not “create” saints; there is a specific set of rules of investigation to be followed, in which the pope has the last act of publicly recognizing them in the announcement of their canonization. (Of course, the pope can push the investigators to cut a few corners (not by ignoring evidence, but by removing certain minimum “wait” periods), and Pope John Paul II has used his position to move several examinations along as quickly as possible. However, it remains a recognition that the person who is being canonized has already been admitted to heaven. Nobody on earth can push someone through the Peary Gates.)
It has nothing at all to do with binding and loosing and the current practices for canonization developed over time-although they have been fairly consistent for many hundreds of years.
I’m only able to answer your first question.
As far as I know, the Pope doesn’t make the Saints, he only declairs them. God makes the Saints, and it’s the (or one of them) Pope’s job to name them.
Officially at least, Catholics in parrticular and Christians in general, don’t pray to saints. They may ask saints to intervene, but they are not supposed to pray to saints.
Although many Catholics worldwide often DO pray “to” Saints, that is, contrary to official theology. It’s no use denying it does happen and people’s predispositions can be damn hard to change.
Canonizations in any of the Churches that go through that process is essentially an element of that particular Church – and it’s the Church, as institution, that recognizes canonization, the Pope, or Patriarch, can influence it and is in charge of proclaiming it. Anyway, for instance, the Russian Orthodox Church canonizing of the Romanov royal family, killed by the Bolsheviks, does NOT create a “Saint Nicholas Romanov of All Russias” in the RCC Canon. IIRC one of the Ancient Churches in the Middle East actually held the wife of Pontius Pilate as a saint (since she warned hubby that no good would come from trying JC). The RCC also can (and did) withdraw official sanction to the popular veneration of a particular saint due to lack of evidence (e.g. Christopher)
In the particular case of Lutherans, Dr.Matrix, I don’t think that the flavours of Lutheranism that favor “saints” give that status to any but the Biblical Characters/Early Church Fathers (e.g. the Apostles).
Well, as an Episcopalian, I can confirm that we do indeed have saints, of course, and the list is not the same, unsurprisingly. I am unsure as to what the process is for someone to be actually recognized as a saint in the Anglican church. But it’s certainly not limited to early church figures, like the Apostles and whatnot, if I have even a shred of memory.