Bringing you the "Good News" of Jesus Christ and His Church While PROMOTING CATHOLIC Apologetic Support groups loyal to the Holy Father and Church's magisterium
Home About
AskACatholic.com
What's New? Resources The Church Family Life Mass and
Adoration
Ask A Catholic
Knowledge base
AskACatholic Disclaimer
Search the
AskACatholic Database
Donate and
Support our work
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
New Questions
Cool Catholic Videos
About Saints
back
Disciplines and Practices for distinct Church seasons
Purgatory and Indulgences
About the Holy Mass
About Mary
Searching and Confused
Contemplating becoming a Catholic or Coming home
Homosexual and Gender Issues
Life, Dating, and Family
No Salvation Outside the Church
Sacred Scripture
non-Catholic Cults
Justification and Salvation
The Pope and Papacy
The Sacraments
Relationships and Marriage situations
Specific people, organizations and events
Doctrine and Teachings
Specific Practices
Church Internals
Church History

Anonymous Grace wrote:

Hi, guys —

  1. How come only some Saints are canonized?
    Did they go straight to Heaven or are they just like role models for the Catholic Church?

  2. Is it rare for souls in God's friendship to die and go straight to Heaven, while most go to Purgatory?

  3. What happened to the righteous souls that were born before Christ after they died?
    (like Moses, Noah, Abraham etc.)

I've heard of "Limbo of the Fathers" or "the Bosom of Abraham" but I'm not sure what they mean.

Grace

  { How come only some saints are canonized and is it rare for souls to go straight to Heaven? }

Eric replied:

Grace,

You said:

  1. How come only some Saints are canonized?
    Did they go straight to Heaven or are they just like role models for the Catholic Church?

Only some saints are canonized because

  1. first, they have to be identified
  2. second, their virtue has to be witnessed; and
  3. third, someone has to go through the effort of advocating a cause for them (i.e. promoting their canonization).

Generally the only people with the momentum for this are founders of religious orders. Your grandmother may be a saint, but until someone realizes "Hey, we should canonize her.", it isn't going to get very far.

  1. Then you have to meticulously document (or have documentation of) their "heroic virtue".
  2. Then you need someone to push the cause through the bureaucracy and have enough interested people to form a cult (cult in the technical sense of devoted following, not in the sense of an aberrant religious organization).

In the Western Church canonized Saints are generally regarded, first, as role models. Many theologians would say that they go straight to Heaven, but I'm not convinced myself that this is necessary, as long as they are in Heaven before they are canonized. (But then you get into the whole thorny time-in-purgatory versus time-on-earth issue.)

You said:

  1. Is it rare for souls in God's friendship to die and go straight to Heaven, while most go to Purgatory?

Most theologians and Fathers do say that it is rare for souls who die in God's friendship to go straight to Heaven without purification.

You said:

  1. What happened to the righteous souls that were born before Christ after they died?
    (like Moses, Noah, Abraham etc.)

I've heard of "Limbo of the Fathers" or "the Bosom of Abraham" but I'm not sure what they mean.

Yes, all these went to the Limbo of the Fathers, called She'ol in the Old Testament (and Hades in Greek mythology) and illustrated in Jesus's parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).

It was just a holding place where all the dead went to await Christ.

  • The Bosom of Abraham is where the just went, to be with Abraham.
  • The Limbo of the Fathers is the wider term for the place of the dead.

There is not much more to it than that.

Eric

Please report any and all typos or grammatical errors.
Suggestions for this web page and the web site can be sent to Mike Humphrey
© 2012 Panoramic Sites
The Early Church Fathers Church Fathers on the Primacy of Peter. The Early Church Fathers on the Catholic Church and the term Catholic. The Early Church Fathers on the importance of the Roman Catholic Church centered in Rome.