Sunday Times 2
The late Pope John Paul II to be made a saint
View(s):The late Pope John Paul II will be made a saint, the Vatican announced today.
Spiritual leaders: Pope John Paul II in 1986 in New Delhi with the Dalai Lama
The news came after Pope Francis approved a second miracle attributed to the Polish pontif who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.
The Vatican said Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the Second Vatican Council, would also be made a saint.
No dates for the canonisation ceremonies were immediately given.
The ANSA news agency reported that a commission of cardinals and bishops met Tuesday to consider John Paul’s case and signed off on it.
A Vatican official confirmed that the decision had been taken some time back and that Tuesday’s meeting was essentially a formality.
One possible canonisation date is December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a major feast day for the Catholic Church.
This year the feast coincidentally falls on a Sunday, which is when canonisations usually occur.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised by the church to discuss saint-making cases on the record, confirmed reports in La Stampa newspaper that Pope John Paul II could be canonised together with Pope John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council but died in 1963 before it was finished.
There is reasoned precedent for beatifying or canonising two popes together, primarily to balance one another out.
John Paul II has been on the fast track for possible sainthood ever since his 2005 death, but there remains some concern that the
Former leader of the Catholic Church: Karol Józef Wojtyla was born in Poland and became Pope John Paul II at the age of 50, in 1978
process has been too quick.
Some of the Holy See’s deep-seated problems – clerical sex abuse, dysfunctional governance and more recently the financial scandals at the Vatican bank – essentially date from shortcomings of his pontificate.
Defenders of the fast-track process argue that people are canonised, not pontificates.
But the Vatican in the past has sought to balance concerns about papal saints by giving two the honour at the same time.
Such was the case in 2000, when John Paul beatified John XXIII, dubbed the ‘good pope,’ alongside Pope Pius IX, who was criticised by Jews for condoning the seizure of a Jewish boy and allegedly referring to Jews as dogs.
By canonising John Paul II along with John XXIII, the Vatican could be seeking to assuage concerns about John Paul’s fast-track sainthood case by tying it together with the 50-year wait John XXIII has had to endure.
Many Poles have been awaiting the final steps of John Paul’s progress, which has been pushed for by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Polish pope’s longtime private secretary.
During John Paul’s 2005 funeral Mass, chants of ‘Santo Subito!’ or ‘Sainthood Now!’ erupted in St. Peter’s Square.
Heeding the calls, then-Pope Benedict XVI waived the typical five-year waiting period and allowed an investigation into John Paul’s life to begin immediately.
The investigation determined that the beloved Polish-born pope lived a virtuous life, the first step in the sainthood process.
Subsequently, the Vatican determined that a French nun who prayed for his intercession was miraculously cured of Parkinson’s disease.
A second miracle is needed for canonisation.
The Vatican hasn’t divulged any details about that second purported miracle.
© Daily Mail, London
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