John Paul II to be beatified May 1, 2011

During his Angelus message on Sunday, January 16, Benedict XVI announced to the faithful gathered on St. Peter’s Square:  “As you know, on May 1 I will have the joy of proclaiming my beloved predecessor, John Paul II, Blessed.  Those who knew him, those who revered and loved him, cannot help but rejoice with the Church over this event.”  Speaking to the Polish pilgrims in their language, he said that he shared the joy of the compatriots of Karol Wojtyla, “a guide in faith, truth and freedom”.

Sources say that Benedict XVI requested that the Congregation for the Causes of Saints follow “an accelerated procedure, but according to the rules” for the beatification of his charismatic predecessor.  At the beginning of his pontificate the pope had decided to waive the rule that a beatification process can be initiated only five years after the death of the person in question.  Thus the opening of the “diocesan phase” of the cause for the beatification and canonization of John Paul II took place on June 28, 2005, less than three months after his death, in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome.

The “diocesan phase on the life, virtues and reputation for sanctity” of Karol Wojtyla was closed during a solemn ceremony in Saint John Lateran on April 2, 2007.  The dossier on John Paul II was then forwarded to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to continue the inquiry in the so-called “Roman” phase of the procedure.

The Congregation then studied the “Positio”, a thick report on the virtues of Karol Wojtyla.  This document passed through the hands of various experts before Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation on December 19, 2009, to promulgate the decree recognizing the “heroic virtues” of his predecessor, but also those of Pius XII.

In early 2007 the inexplicable cure of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, had been deemed “miraculous” within the framework of the beatification process of the Polish pope.  This religious from the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Wards had been cured of Parkinson’s disease in June 2005.

In beatifying John Paul II only six years after his death, the Church is responding within an exceptional time-frame to the demand of some Catholics who had asked that he be canonized immediately.  Indeed, on the day of his funeral, members of the Focolari movement carried banners on which one could read the inscription “Santo subito”, “a Saint immediately”.

(Sources : Apic/Imedia – DICI no. 228 dated January 20, 2011)

You can also read :
Communiqué of the District of Germany on the beatification of John Paul II