This is great news from the Catholic News Agency:
The much-anticipated beatification of Pope John Paul II will take place on May 1, the Sunday after Easter, the Vatican announced.
The healing of a French nun with Parkinson’s disease is to go down in history as the miracle that made John Paul II a “blessed.” The title is given to martyrs and other Christians to whom a miracle has been officially attributed, thus bringing them one step closer to sainthood.
Pope Benedict XVI approved the decree for the beatification of his predecessor during a Jan. 14 audience with the head of the Vatican department for saints’ causes, Cardinal Angelo Amato.
Read more at CNA.
January 15, 2011 at 2:47 pm
He's not actually being canonized yet–beatification is a step on that path, though no guarantee.
January 15, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Evelyn's right. Just ask Bl. Peter Faber, SJ.
January 15, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I'm being too lazy to look it up; however, I believe that beatification is canonization.
The difference between being "only" beatified and being recognized as a saint is this: the declaration of sainthood is an infallible declaration.
January 15, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Okay, I went check it out. And I owe apologies to Eveyln and Joe. That's what I get for being lazy and full of myself.
Here's what the Catholic Encyclopedia article on "Canonization and Beatification" says:
"Canonization, generally speaking, is a decree regarding the public ecclesiastical veneration of an individual. Such veneration, however, may be permissive or preceptive, may be universal or local. If the decree contains a precept, and is universal in the sense that it binds the whole Church, it is a decree of canonization; if it only permits such worship, or if it binds under precept, but not with regard to the whole Church, it is a decree of beatification."
I'm not sure why I was under my previous impression, but I've learned (yet again) to take a deep breath and think before I speak …er, post.
January 15, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Sigh. I don't understand why you older folks keep saying this is "great news" or even "good news" – me, being a young'un, I've no attachment to the late pope, and his name only conjures up pictures wearing ugly vestments to preside over badly celebrated liturgies, or, occasionally, that picture of him kissing the Koran (somebody had to mention it!).
Anyway, this is so rushed. Six years haven't passed since his death, so there are still plenty of old people around who remember him with fondness and who will therefore not rest until they see him honored with the title of Saint. If only Pope John Paul II hadn't reformed the canonization process…
January 15, 2011 at 6:46 pm
meilinPR, I totally agree. Speaking of rushed, I thought that one of the main requirements of the miracles of healing were that they were lasting, that is, they remain until the natural death of the subject. No one is waiting around to fulfill that requirement, obviously. Has it been abrogated, I wonder?
January 15, 2011 at 7:23 pm
I concur with Blackrep and MeilinPR. What's the big rush? Joan of Arc had to wait 500 years for the Church to make it right and I would say she made a much bigger splash in history. The old canonization process was so slow and careful for a reason. Two millenia, during which people were declared saints by popular acclaim, taught our ancestors to be cautious because a hasty canonization can bring shame on the Church and all her members. JP II had a very controversial reign and the Maciel affair was a huge fail – even if the full truth was withheld from him. Some day a great pope will reassume full authority and drive the wolves from the flock, but that wasn't JP II.
January 16, 2011 at 8:04 am
St. Francis of Assisi was canonized two years after his death. What
was the rush?
The fact is, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints and the Holy
Father are both satisfied that all the requirements for the beatification
have been met. The Pope has decided that now is a good time to go
ahead and declare the late Pope 'Blessed', as it is his decision to make.
He could wait until another time, but clearly the Pope believes now is
opportune.
Beatification and canonization are not referenda on the late Pope's
reign. They are a statement on the state of his soul. If only people
who have never sinned or made a mistake in this life can become a
saint, then Our Lady would be the only one of us in heaven, no?
meilinPR, this is great news because canonization is always more than
a person being "honored with the title of Saint". It's not a courtesy
title like 'mister', or an award like 'employee of the month'. The Church,
when (and if) She canonizes Pope John Paul II is telling the world that
he is in heaven, interceding for all of the Church in this world.
Frankly, I'm glad to get all of the help I can.
January 16, 2011 at 6:01 pm
The Catholic Encyclopedia is leaving out some nuance. It is attributing infallibility in this area to the common not universal opinion of theologians but that sententia communis in Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma/ Intro section 7…..is in Ott's words an area of "free opinion". In short one is free to hold internally that a particular case was a mistake. Theologians even as a universal group are not an infallible organ….ergo they cannot produce infallible opinion on what is or is not infallible. The binding precept after canonization would forbid me after canonization from campaigning to have the canonization rescinded. But internally it cannot compel if the very process might be infallible but might not be infallible because the opinion comes not from a Council or Papal extraordinary encyclical….but from most theologians.
January 17, 2011 at 1:14 am
This ancient old folk of 26 says Santo Subito. Slessed John Paul II ora pro nobis.
January 18, 2011 at 11:48 pm
I knew it was coming but I didn't think it would come this soon. I am referring to the phrase that is apparently going to quickly join the ranks of the cliche, "He isn't being canonized on what he did during his reign, but for his personal holiness, etc." If some people actually accept that at face value then the Church is in rather serious trouble.
Of course no one knows for certain the state of the late pontiff's soul. But actions do have consequences, so it is his actions (or inaction) which we must judge by. And using that criteria we have to sadly face the fact that John Paul II's papacy was an unmitigated disaster for the Church. And it is his performance as Pope, among other things, that God will take into consideration. Just as it is our performance as Catholics while we lived on earth that will be laid bare when we meet our maker.
It is useless to go through a litany of John Paul's woeful papacy; the facts are there for all to see. His failure can be summed up, however, in one phrase: he refused to govern the Church entrusted to him. Every one of his shocking actions – from the Assisi syncretist jamboree, the festering stench of the homosexual infiltration which he did nothing to rectify, the appointing of bad bishops and worse Cardinals, his toadying to impudent Jewish opinion, his toleration of sacriligeous masses worldwide, his total failure to correct the heresies of his clergy, etc. – can be attributed to that lack of governance.
Yes, he spoke beautifully and eloquently on life issues; few Popes have done better. But when it came time for him to act on these issues, he backtracked, and did not discipline. His personal charm was wonderful; his cowardice in the face of religious treason less so. His emasculation of the centuries-old and prudent methods in place to investigate genuine sainthood, the safeguards that were there to protect the Church from doing the wrong thing, were tragic mistakes. His "Woodstock"-style World Youth Days (a horrible practice now, alas, continued by Benedict) brought more shame and scandal than the very little good they ever did, either long term or short term.
Raising John Paul to the altars would be an insult to all those who have tried to keep the Faith on an even keel during this long, dark night. It would canonize not John Paul but the liberalism and modernism ushered in by the Second Vatican Council, from Communion-in-the-hand to altar girls, from dreadful catechisms to Homo Masses (yes, they are still going on around the world). It would cut off at the knees loyal Catholics who remain disgusted by the trajectory of the current Church, a trajectory being continued, apparently, by the current Holy Father.
For my part I will say my little prayer to ask our dear Lord to stop this media-driven frenzy to declare John Paul a saint. Let us stop being sentimental and shallow. If we judge by his actions (just as we will be judged), and not knowing what happened on his death bed, then I think we cannot view with excessive optimism his immediate entrance into Heaven. So let us not call him "blessed". Let us instead pray for his soul.
And let us invoke the help of a genuinely great Pope, one who had the guts to do what had to be done. St Pius X, ora pro nobis.