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#8361
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[quote:3uo08qet][color=darkred:3uo08qet]One of my confirmation students officially stumped me. He asked:[/color:3uo08qet]

[i:3uo08qet]How do we know Saints are in heaven for sure? If the Church doesn’t have any authority to make infallible proclamations regarding a person’s eternal resting place. Maybe the person we call a saint is really in Hell.[/i:3uo08qet]

[color=darkred:3uo08qet]What would you say?[/color:3uo08qet][/quote:3uo08qet]

Canonization is infallible.
In any canonization process, the Pope states that the canonization is declared by the authority of Christ. Here is an example:

[i:3uo08qet]”For the honour of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the fostering of the Christian life, [b:3uo08qet]by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ[/b:3uo08qet], of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, after due deliberation and frequent prayers for the divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of our Brother Bishops, we declare and define that Bl. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein, is a saint and we enrol her among the saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated in the whole Church as one of the saints. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. [/i:3uo08qet]
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2STEIN.HTM

[i:3uo08qet]Canonization differs from beatification in part because the former [b:3uo08qet]involves the Pope’s infallible magisterium[/b:3uo08qet], explained Cardinal Jos?© Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes.
………………………..
He added that “the Church acts with a pronouncement that [b:3uo08qet]has the character of a decree, definitive and obligatory for the whole Church[/b:3uo08qet], involving the solemn magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, while this does not happen in the case of beatifications.” [/i:3uo08qet]
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=79036