Was it wrong for the Church not to venerate Emperor Constantine as a saint, and should it be corrected?
A viewer asks whether it was wrong for the Catholic Church not to venerate the Emperor Constantine as a saint and whether that should be corrected.
Answer
There are a lot of people in that category, not just Constantine, where we wonder where the Church was, and it is a big job keeping up with all of it. Here is how it works: somebody makes a cause, a lot of people get behind it and storm the Vatican, so to speak, because sometimes the Church waits for the movement of the Spirit. That is how it was with the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary; there was a groundswell of the Catholic faithful constantly bringing it up, and it was not defined until 1950. So the Church works slowly sometimes, but it is prompted by the people. If the Holy Spirit wants to make Constantine a saint, he can start a groundswell and see where it leads. And do not lose faith if it never happens; the purpose of canonizing a saint is so that when you pray to that person for favors, you can know he is actually in heaven and can ask God for them; that is why the Church canonizes, so we make sure we are praying to the right people.