Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: zds-ux!bjstaff@uunet.uu.net Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Praying to saints Message-ID: Date: 5 Jun 90 03:50:23 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 18 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Greetings: I have been following the various threads on "praying to saints" with great interest, as I was raised in a Protestant church, and have been curious about this practice for a long time. Prior to this discussion, I thought that this practice came very close to worshipping deceased Christians as pseudo-deities. I now understand that the Catholic church uses the term "pray" in an unconventional manner. I think this must have caused a great deal of confusion among non-Catholics. It seems to me like Catholic theologians had to stretch the Scriptures quite a bit to justify "praying to saints". I still have a question, however. How does the Catholic church *know* that any particular deceased person actually *made it* into heaven? Doesn't that decision belong to God? Brad Staff ...uunet!zds-ux!bjstaff