between the space shuttle, the royal event and this it could be quite a weekend.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100156.htm
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI approved a
miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II's intercession,
clearing the way for the late pope's beatification on
May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday.
Pope Benedict's action Jan. 14 followed more
than five years of investigation into the life and
writings of the Polish pontiff, who died in April 2005 after
more than 26 years as pope.
The Vatican said it took special care with
verification of the miracle, the spontaneous cure of a
French nun from Parkinson's disease -- the same illness
that afflicted Pope John Paul in his final years.
Three separate Vatican panels approved the miracle,
including medical and theological experts, before Pope
Benedict signed the official decree.
"There were no concessions given here in
procedural severity and thoroughness," said Cardinal
Angelo Amato, head of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.
On the contrary, he said, Pope John Paul's cause was
subject to "particularly careful scrutiny, to remove any
doubt."
The Vatican said it would begin looking at
logistical arrangements for the massive crowds expected
for the beatification liturgy, which will be celebrated by Pope
Benedict at the Vatican. Divine Mercy Sunday had special
significance for Pope John Paul, who made it
a church-wide feast day to be celebrated a week
after Easter. The pope died on the vigil of Divine
Mercy Sunday in 2005.
With beatification, Pope John Paul will be
declared "blessed" and thus worthy of restricted
liturgical honor. Another miracle is needed for
canonization, by which the church declares a person to be a
saint and worthy of universal veneration.
The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico
Lombardi, summed up much of the sentiment in Rome when
he said Pope John Paul would be beatified primarily
for the spiritual gifts of faith, hope and charity
that were the source of his papal activity.
The world witnessed that spirituality when
the pope prayed, when he spent time with the sick and
suffering, in his visits to the impoverished countries
of the world and in his own illness "lived out in faith,
before God and all of us," Father Lombardi said.
Brigida Jones, a 26-year-old Australian
Catholic visiting the Vatican from Melbourne, echoed
the spokesman's sentiments: "I think he did so
much while he was alive, and you'd just see him on
television and get this sense of peace -- obviously he was
holy."
Father Lombardi said the Vatican was
preparing to move Pope John Paul's body from the crypt of St.
Peter's Basilica to the Chapel of St. Sebastian in
the basilica's upper level at the time of
beatification. The chapel, on the right hand side of the church
just after Michelangelo's Pieta, is easily accessible
and spacious, an important factor given the steady stream
of pilgrims who come to see the pope's tomb.
Father Lombardi said Pope John Paul's casket
would not be opened at the time of the relocation, and
that it would remain closed after it is placed
beneath the altar of the chapel. To make room, the Vatican will
have to move the tomb of a previously beatified
pontiff, Pope Innocent XI, to another area of the basilica,
he said.
In 2005, Pope Benedict set Pope John Paul on
the fast track to beatification by waiving the normal
five-year waiting period for the introduction of his
sainthood cause. That seemed to respond to the "Santo
subito!" ("Sainthood now!") banners that were held
aloft at Pope John Paul's funeral.
Even so, church experts needed years to
review the massive amount of evidence regarding the late
pope, including thousands of pages of writings and
speeches.
The process began with the Diocese of Rome,
which interviewed more than 120 people who knew
Pope John Paul and asked them about his actions and
character. Studies were conducted on his ministry, the way he
handled suffering and how he faced his death.
In 2007, on the second anniversary of the
pope's death, the Rome Diocese concluded the initial
inquiry phase. The documents from the investigation were
placed in four chests, which were latched, tied with a red
ribbon, sealed with red wax and delivered to the
Congregation for Saints' Causes for further study.
In November 2008, a team of theological
consultors to the saints congregation began studying the
2,000-page "positio," the document that made the case
for Pope John Paul's beatification. After their favorable
judgment, the cardinal and bishop members of the
sainthood congregation met in late 2009 and voted to
advance the cause.
On Dec. 21, 2009, Pope Benedict declared that
Pope John Paul had lived a life of "heroic virtues."
That meant he could be beatified once a miracle had been
approved.
The reported cure of the French nun was
carefully investigated by the Vatican's medical experts
over the last year after questions were raised about
the original diagnosis. Vatican sources said that, in the
end, the experts were satisfied that it was
Parkinson's, and that there was no scientific explanation for the
cure.
In 2007, the nun, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre,
spoke to reporters about her experience. A member of
the Little Sisters of the Catholic Motherhood, she was
diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2001 at the age of 40. In
watching Pope John Paul deteriorate from the effects
of Parkinson's disease, she said, "I saw myself
in the years to come."
When the pope died in 2005, and as Sister
Marie-Simon-Pierre's condition began to
worsen, all the members of the Little Sisters of Catholic
Motherhood in France and in Senegal began praying to Pope
John Paul to intervene with God to heal her.
By June 2, two months after the pope died,
she was struggling to write, to walk and to function
normally. But she said she went to bed that night and
woke up very early the next morning feeling completely
different.
"I was sure I was healed," she said. Not long
afterward, she had recovered enough to return to work in
Paris at a maternity hospital run by her order.
Several times during the last two years,
rumors have surfaced about delays in Pope John Paul's
beatification cause. Various reasons were reported, most
having to do with incomplete documentation.
In 2010, with new revelations of priestly sex
abuse in many European countries, some Vatican sources
said it was the wrong moment to push the sainthood
cause of Pope John Paul, who was pope when some of the
abuse occurred.
But the Vatican's sainthood congregation
continued to methodically process the cause.
A year ago, a book revealed some of the
spiritual and penitential practices of Pope John Paul,
including self-flagellation and spending entire nights
on a bare floor with his arms outstretched. The book
was written by Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of the
late pope's sainthood cause, and it prompted some
displeasure among church officials because it was based on
supposedly confidential material gathered in the
investigation process.
Pope John Paul's death and funeral brought
millions of people to Rome, and Vatican officials said
they would begin working with the City of Rome in
logistical planning for the beatification.
END
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