John Paul II to Be Soon Beatified?

Source: FSSPX News

At the beginning of November, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State of the Holy See, as well as Fr. Federico Lombardi, spokesman of the Vatican, made known that the announcement of John Paul II’s beatification was not imminent (see DICI n° 205). But the meeting of the commission of cardinals and bishops from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in charge of deciding the heroic character of Karol Wojtyla’s virtues, has given a new start to the speculations of Vatican observers, always on the look out for exclusive information.
Though the members of the commission are bound by pontifical secrecy, it is obvious that “their vote can only have been favorable” according to indiscretions collected by Roman agency I.Media. As for Fr. Lombardi, he declined giving any comment.
In Le Figaro of November 16, Jean Marie Guénois indicated the following steps: “In the coming days, the vote and the Positio (dossier of the cause of beatification, Ed.) will be handed to the Pope. Mid-December, at the latest, Benedict XVI will receive Cardinal Angelo Amato (Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints) to give him his agreement. Technically speaking, he will authorize the ‘publication of the Decree of Heroic Virtues’ of John Paul II. And nothing seems to point out that he will delay the decision, as he did, last year, for the dossier of Pius XII.”
Next will come the last step before beatification properly so called: the examination of the miracle attributed to the intercession of John Paul II. It is the case of French religious Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Hospitals, cured, without any scientific explanation, of Parkinson disease in 2005. This case will go before a medical commission, a commission of theologians, and lastly before a commission of cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Some journalists take the risk of putting forward the month of October 2010 for the beatification, to mark the anniversary of John Paul’s II election on October 16, 1978. If such were the case, Karol Wojtyla would be  beatified a little over five years after his deaths, within a space of time even shorter than Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), beatified six years after her demise. The opening of the cause of beatification and canonization of Pope John Paul II took place on June 28, 2005, as an exception less than three months after his death. Indeed, on the preceding May 13, Benedict XVI had announced he granted a derogation to the rule according to which this kind of procedure can begin only five years after the death of the person concerned.

The rapidity and multiplication of beatifications and canonizations, especially under John Paul II, give rise to some questions. Related reading on this topic: On the Canonizations of John Paul II,  by Frs. Lorber and Gleize, published January 2008 in The Angelus (download the pdf file); Canonization in Today’s Magisterium, by Fr. Calderon, published in the June 2005 issue of The Angelus magazine (download the pdf file).  (– Sources: Le Figaro/Apic/Imedia/The Angelus)(DICI n° 206 - 02/12/2009 – Sources: Le Figaro/Apic/Imedia)