Blessed John Paul II

[judE_Law]

BeatificationOn 9 May 2005, Benedict XVI began the beatification process for his predecessor. Normally five years must pass after a person's death before the beatification process can begin. However, in an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Vicar Camillo Ruini, the one responsible for promoting the cause for canonisation of any person who dies within the diocese of Rome, cited "exceptional circumstances" which suggested that the waiting period could be waived.

The "exceptional circumstances" may possibly refer to the people's cries of "Santo Subito!" ("Saint Now!" in Italian) during the late pontiff's funeral. Therefore the new Pope waived the five year rule "so that the cause of Beatification and Canonisation of the same Servant of God can begin immediately." The decision was announced on 13 May 2005, the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima and the 24th anniversary of the assassination attempt on John Paul II at St. Peter's Square. John Paul II often credited Our Lady of Fátima for preserving him on that day. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, officially opened the cause for beatification in the Lateran Basilica on 28 June 2005.

In early 2006, it was reported that the Vatican was investigating a possible miracle associated with John Paul II. A French nun, confined to her bed by Parkinson's Disease, is reported to have experienced a "complete and lasting cure after members of her community prayed for the intercession of Pope John Paul II". The nun was later identified as Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Wards from Puyricard, near Aix-en-Provence. Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, 46, is working again, now in Paris at a maternity hospital run by her order. She met reporters 30 March 2006 in Aix-en-Provence during a press conference with Archbishop Claude Feidt of Aix, the archdiocese where the cure took place.


"I was sick and now I am cured," she told reporters. "I am cured, but it is up to the church to say whether it was a miracle or not."


On 28 May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said Mass before an estimated 900,000 people in John Paul II's native Poland. During his homily he encouraged prayers for the early canonisation of John Paul II and stated that he hoped canonisation would happen "in the near future."

In January 2007, it was announced by Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz of Kraków, his former secretary, that the key interviewing phase in Italy and Poland of the beatification process was nearing completion. Cardinal Dziwisz had been giving an interview that featured the introduction of his new book in Polish and Italian, Living With Karol, when he made the announcement. The relics of Pope John Paul II—pieces of white papal cassocks he used to wear—were being freely distributed with prayer cards for the cause to interested parties; this distribution and prayerful use of relics is a typical praiseworthy pious practice after a saintly Catholic's death.

On 8 March 2007 the Vicariate of Rome announced that the diocesan phase of John Paul's cause for beatification is at an end. Following a ceremony on 2 April 2007 — the second anniversary of the Pontiff's death — the cause proceeded to the scrutiny of the committee of lay, clerical, and episcopal members of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who will conduct an investigation of their own.[18][31] On the fourth anniversary of Pope John Paul's death, 2 April 2009, Cardinal Dziwisz, told reporters of a presumed miracle that had recently occurred at the former pope's tomb in St. Peter's Basilica. A nine year-old Polish boy from Gdańsk, who was suffering from kidney cancer and was completely unable to walk, had been visiting the tomb with his parents. On leaving St. Peter's basilica, the boy told them, "I want to walk," and began walking normally.

In October 2009, Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno said that the beatification, likely to draw huge crowds, was expected to take place in 2010, but on 4 November 2009 Monsignor Slawomir Oder, postulator of the cause of beatification, said that it was not yet known when study of the case could be concluded.

On 16 November 2009, a panel of reviewers at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted unanimously that Pope John Paul II had lived a life of virtue. If Pope Benedict XVI agrees, he will sign the first of two decrees needed for beatification. The first recognises that he lived a heroic, virtuous life and enables him to be called "Venerable", the next step in the sainthood process. That decree was signed by Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, December 19, 2009.[42] The second vote and the second signed decree would recognise the authenticity of his first miracle (most likely, the case of Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, the French nun who was cured of Parkinson's Disease). Once the second decree is signed, the 'positio′ (the report on the cause, with documentation about his life and his writings and with information on the cause) is regarded as being complete. He can then be beatified. It has been announced that John Paul II will be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on May 1, 2011.

In the course of the beatification process, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, postulator of the cause, wrote a book on Pope John Paul II called Why A Saint. Oder described how the late Pope flagellated himself and how he used a whip which he also took to his holiday home in Castelgandolfo. The book publishes the testimony of 114 witnesses. Oder also mentions that when the Pope was shot in Vatican Square, he initially thought the group Brigate Rosse was responsible. Sometime before the shooting, the Pope's secret service reported a Brigate Rosse plan to kidnap him.

Prior to the announcement of his beatification, some ecclesiastical authorities had expressed concern that the cure of Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, and perhaps the cure of the boy who had cancer, may not be complete and lasting, as it has not been that long since the supposed miracles. Sister Marie's symptoms were analyzed very thoroughly before the beatification was announced (by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints and its medical panel for the Pope's case) to make sure they were not actually psychogenic, or related to another disease. The medical miracle was given a positive affirmation by the Congregation and its medical and theological panels, and by Pope Benedict. It would not have counted as a miracle if the cause was psychogenic and if the immediate physiological cure had not been judged to be definitive, total, and permanent, as well as directly attributable to his intercession.

The Pope, even today and despite his widespread admiration for his sanctity and his charismatic rapport with others, has been especially criticized (more than perhaps any other issue) for not recognizing the full severity of the Catholic sex abuse cases until they erupted in America in 2002. John Paul is still taking heat for not recognizing the dual life of the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, and for allowing diocesan bishops to transfer pedophile priests from one parish to another instead of reporting their crimes to the authorities.


" "It will be a great joy for us when he is officially beatified, but as far as we are concerned he is already a Saint." "
—Stanisław Dziwisz

[judE_Law]

"We love you Blessed John Paul II"

[judE_Law]

Watch ABS-CBN's Special Coverage of Pope John Paul II's Beatification,
with Live Updates from the Vatican from ABS-CBN Chief Correspondent Korina Sanchez and Europe News Chief Bureau Danny Buenafe

May 1, 2011

9:30am
11:30am
3:30pm
4:15pm
5pm
6pm - TV Patrol Weekend

[judE_Law]

am now watching "Banal", an abs-cbn special report on Pope John Paul II..


grabe...

[incognito]

^watching it too! kaso nakamute ang tv.

[judE_Law]

kakaiyak...

[incognito]

naku yokong umiyak ngayon . pero love ko din si pope john paul II.

[judE_Law]

"I see that it was my great privilege to be here and to discover anew this phenomenon I knew before. By today I knew better. This great phenomenon of the world and of the Church and to the world and to the Church and this phenomenon is called Filipino people... to discover anew the Philippines that is this phenomenon that I admire and I should."

POPE JOHN PAUL II
MANILA, 1995 World Youth Day

[Chris]

kakamiss si Pope John Paul II. napanood ko rin yung Banal sa channel 2. di ko alam kung bakit parang naluha ata ako hehe.

sabi nya: "there are 2 things that the Philippines have: The richness of your faith and the closeness of your family."

[niceako]

Missed watching this one, will have to check if TFC will air it here...

I can still remember World Youth Day 1995, we aren't aware that we're crying upon seeing Pope John Paul II, it was a very humbling and magical experience.

I guess very few people can have this strong impact to the world and still manage to influence us even after his death.

[judE_Law]

kakamiss si Pope John Paul II. napanood ko rin yung Banal sa channel 2. di ko alam kung bakit parang naluha ata ako hehe.

sabi nya: "there are 2 things that the Philippines have: The richness of your faith and the closeness of your family."

kakaiyak din yang part na yan boss chris..

pati yung sinabi ni rev. socrates villegas na.. hindi lang dalawa ang saint na Pilipino.. kundi Tatlo.