www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News John Paul II set to be saint within weeks

John Paul II set to be saint within weeks [news.independent.co.uk]

By Victor L Simpson in Rome
Published: 10 July 2005


Pope John Paul II's closest aide said yesterday that he hoped the late pontiff would be made a saint during World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany next month.

"Everything is possible, but I don't know if it would be opportune," said Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. But, he added, the Cologne setting would be perfect because "no one loved young people like the pope and they loved him. It would be wonderful for a German pope to canonise a Polish pope in Cologne."

Speculation has been swirling about whether Pope Benedict XVI might beatify John Paul during the World Youth Day celebrations - placing the late pope on an even faster track to possible sainthood. Already, Benedict waived the five-year waiting period and allowed the beatification process to officially begin just three months after John Paul died on 2 April. The five-year wait was a reform of John Paul II's: previously the normal period before someone could be declared a saint was 50 years, later reduced to 10.

At present the case for his sainthood is being collected by a "postulator" whose task is to sift the evidence. He is apparently receiving hundreds of emails daily which talk of personal meetings with the late pope and ascribing potential miracles that occurred after prayer to him. Two proven miracles are required to become a saint. It used to be four.

There has also been speculation that John Paul II could be declared a martyr, thus removing the need altogether to ascribe verified miracles to him. Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has been reported saying that it was up to theologians to decide if the 1981 attempt on the late pope's life and his long suffering before he died constituted martyrdom.

John Paul II was the most prolific creator of saints in the Vatican's history. He beatified 1,338 people, of whom 1,032 were martyrs. He elevated 482 people to sainthood, and 480 of these were deemed martyrs. Critics have described these figures as constituting "mass-production" of saints, not all of whom have been untainted by controversy.

Archbishop Dziwisz, John Paul's trusted private secretary, specified that he wanted John Paul canonised - not just beatified - during the Cologne visit. Asked if Benedict might declare him a martyr - which would spare the Vatican from having to find and confirm a miracle attributed to John Paul - the archbishop responded, "In any case, people want him to be a saint."

The cleric, who has recently been named Archbishop of Krakow, also con- firmed that he disregarded instructions in the late pope's will to burn all his personal papers. Archbishop Dziwisz said the material was "too important historically" to destroy and that he intended to make it public bit by bit.

The archbishop also said that Pope Benedict XVI will visit Poland next spring. "He has promised it."

Dear DocBrian,

Well, I hope people don't get too carried away with all the hype surrounding Pope John Paul II.

Let the Congregation for Saints' Causes do its work unhampered by all this unbridled enthusiasm and near-hysterical veneration of the Pontiff!

Why all the hurry?

(Sorry, I had to stop. My fingers began to shake from all my giggling here . . .)

Alex

I agree; I'm no fan of shortening the process. I feel it is a mistake to let emotions overrule established, prudential processes for the canonization of anyone, including Pope JPII.

Aw, come on, Alex - hysterical? Isn't it more likely that the simple folk know a saint when they see one? And despite all his too-human flaws, John Paul II was and is a great saint.

As our beloved El Presidente once said, "Bring it on!"

Dear Dolly,

I was KIDDING!

Haven't you read my Akathist to Pope John Paul?

Alex

Uh oh....

HAHAHAHAHA...Doc and Gal, y'all know I'm just playing with y'all, but after I read Alex's post and it was obvious that he was joking, I read y'all's posts.

Alex was poking fun at people like me, who really do believe this whole JPII dulia thing needs to be kicked back a notch - at least for now!

You know what has always confused me? First, why don't miracles need to be attributed to martyr-saints? What's the rationale behind that one?

Second, why does the number of "proven" miracles in a person's Cause matter at all? ISTM that one proven miracle, since it is by definition proven, is just as good as fifty "proven" miracles.

Logos Teen

Dear Teen Logo,

That's because the fact that a person voluntarily offered his or her life for what is unseen, on faith, is ALREADY a great miracle!

Don't you agree?

The sainted Pope John Paul also tended to waive requirements for more miracles etc.

But the fact remains that the great majority of those he beatified and canonized were Martyrs, whose fact of martyrdom "cleared" the way for their liturgical glorification.

Alex

The article also seems to contain a regrettable confusion between beatification and canonization.

Dear ByzKat,

Excellent point!

In fact, Beatification is NOT an infallible pronouncement of the Church as canonization is, for one thing.

And if a certain person is widely venerated and is called, in pious prayer, "Blessed" as a matter of course, Rome often approves the cult without questioning it (a la "Vox Populi").

In the Middle Ages, in fact, there was NO distinction between the titles "Blessed" and "Saint."

If a locale had two saints with the same name, one was often called "Blessed" while the other was called "Saint." (i.e. St Anthony of Padua and Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim of Padua).

But the process of gradual canonization existed from the very beginning.

In Orthodoxy, a saint could be canonized several times by different Churches representing an ever-widening sphere of religious veneration - and still be always referred to as "Saint so and so."

Mt Athos canonizes its own saints and these saints remain local for Mt Athos (they bury their reposed monastics under a thin layer of earth and after three years, they uncover the body and examine it. If it has blackened, this means the monk needs the prayers of the community, but if the body is incorrupt, then it is exposed while others call on his intercession. With miracles, the monastic then becomes a candidate for local sainthood).

St Paissy Velichkovsky, the teacher of the Jesus Prayer, was first canonized on Mt Athos and is now an internationally recognized Orthodox saint, also widely revered in Catholic and other circles.

St John the Russian or the Ruthenian was glorified by three Churches, that of Greece, of Constantinople and, in 1962, by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Recently, the UOC-MP received Patriarch St Gregory V, the New Hieromartyr, into the Ukrainian Orthodox calendar. After he was martyred and thrown into the Black Sea, the holy Patriarch's body was picked up by an Odessa ship and taken there where it was enshrined in the Cathedral until the 19th century when it was taken to be enshrined at the National Catheral at Athens.

To this day, the door over which the Patriarch was hanged by the Turks at the Phanarion remains open and never closes . . .

Alex