Do Formally Cannionized Saints go directly to heaven, or do they stop by breifly in Purgatory?

[White Knight]

The Catechism is clear about Martyrs' going directly to Heaven, its actually more clear than the Alternative, the Catechism seems to be vague on the term "Perfectly incorporated into Christ"  and those who still need "atonement for venial sins"

Jesus said in the Gospel of Saint Matthew that we need to be "Perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect."
The book of Saint John's Revelation says "Nothing unclean shall enter it." meaning the New Heaven and New Earth.

So last I checked unless one is Martyred a "Official Canonized Saint" needs three miracles confirmed by the Vatican to proclaim him/her a Actual Saint.

My wife and I agree that Martyrs  go directly to Heaven without Purgatory, however we are unconvinced about non-martyrs going directly to Heaven without a brief stop in purgatory, my wife seems to think a Saint goes directly to Heaven. But I am under the impression that everyone even the just man stills sins up to 7 times a day, "even to the point of death", to my understanding no one dies perfect and they need to be purified from their sins before entering the "Perfection of Heaven."

Someone like Saint John Paul the Great who died 10 years ago this month,  was quickly Venerated, then Beatified, and then finally Canonized in April of Last year. Did he go directly to Heaven and the miracles "prove he's in Heaven definitely right now", but upon his death in April of 2005 did he "briefly go to Purgatory"  before finally entering Heaven and the Miracles prove his placement there?

My wife and I read the paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church "regarding Heaven, Purgatory, Martyrdom"   We have our agreements and disagreements we both see our points in the Catechism and still stand on our positions of this, can someone with a solid theological understanding help bring some clarity to the Catechism's very vague answers????


Thanks God Bless You all
White Knight 

[Theologian in Training]

“A soul may go to Purgatory, then, for three reasons 1) On account of venial sins not remitted here on earth 2) On account of vicious inclinations left in the soul through habits of sin 3) On account of the temporal punishment due to every sin, mortal or venial, committed after Baptism and not sufficiently atoned for during life (Purgatory and the Means to Avoid It).

Many saints were great sinners, sometimes, many times they suffered enough, perhaps, to atone for those "vicious inclinations left in the soul through habits of sin," but maybe not fully in this life. Just because they are saints now does not, necessarily, mean that they didn't still have some attachments when they departed this world. So, while we can speculate that many saints probably went to Heaven, we cannot be absolutely sure that every one of them went directly to Heaven. Therefore, the possibility and/or probability strongly exists that some canonized saints did have to pass through the purifications of Purgatory before entering the bliss of Heaven. 

Hope that helps.

God bless,

Fr. Brian