The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit and maintaining the unbroken tradition of the Apostles, has ever taught the profound and salutary doctrine concerning the Saints, those elect souls, our brethren, who have, through the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the guidance of Our Lady, attained the crown of Holiness and now reign eternally with God. 

It is a dogma of faith that these blessed spirits, being perfectly united to Christ, are not only to be held in highest honor but are also to be piously and confidently invoked.  We do not worship them with the supreme honor of latria, which is due to God alone, but we venerate them with the honor of dulia, recognizing them as powerful intercessors and glorious examples of Christian virtue.  The lives of the Saints bear witness that the grace merited on the Cross is not sterile, but fructifies unto life everlasting, providing an undeniable pattern for all Catholics still navigating the perilous seas of this earthly exile for but a short time.

This veneration stems from the sublime mystery of the Communion of Saints, a truth confessed in the Creed, which signifies a mutual participation in holy things and a mystical, indissoluble bond between the Church Triumphant in heaven, the Church Suffering in purgatory, and the Church Militant here on earth. 

The Saints, having reached their final repose, do not abandon their care for those still engaged in spiritual warfare, but rather, their charity is perfected and magnified.  Their intercession is efficacious because they present their prayers, purified and inflamed with divine love, before the throne of the Almighty, thereby obtaining for us temporal and spiritual graces which aid us toward our own Holiness.

Therefore, it is a great impiety, contrary to both Scripture and Apostolic custom, to neglect this divine arrangement for mutual support and spiritual fellowship within the Body of Christ.