Pope John Paul II waves from the gangway of his plane – Damascus, Syria – May 8, 2001 – Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
Reporting Rich Lamb
VATICAN CITY (AP/CBSNewYork) - The pope on Friday approved a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II’s intercession and set May 1 as the date for his beatification, an event that will be a major morale boost for a church reeling from a wave of violence against Christians and fallout from the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
WCBS 880′s Rich Lamb reports
1010 WINS Reporter Al Jones talks with Polish people who are proud of Pope John Paul II’s advancement to Sainthood.
Pope Benedict XVI declared in a decree that a French nun’s recovery from Parkinson’s disease was miraculous, the last step needed for the beloved pontiff’s beatification.
The May 1 ceremony, to be celebrated by Benedict himself, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Rome to honor one of the most popular popes of all time. A second miracle is needed for John Paul to be made a saint.
The news brought great joy to John Paul’s fellow countrymen living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“He deserves it. It’s been a long time…finally, it’s going to happen,” one man told 1010 WINS’ Al Jones.
“Everybody was thrilled when he was elected Pope and that’s a big thrill for Polish people for him to be a saint,” another man said.
Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to possible sainthood just weeks after he died in 2005, responding to the chants of “Santo Subito!” or “Sainthood immediately!” that erupted during his funeral.
Benedict waived the typical five-year waiting period before the process could begin, but he insisted that the investigation into John Paul’s life be thorough so as to not leave any doubts about his virtues.
The last remaining hurdle concerned the approval by Vatican-appointed panels of doctors and theologians, cardinals and bishops that the cure of French nun, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, was a miracle due to the intercession of John Paul.
The nun has said she felt reborn when she woke up two months after John Paul died, cured of the disease that had made walking, writing and driving a car nearly impossible. She and her fellow sisters had prayed to John Paul, who also suffered from Parkinson’s.
Last year, there were some questions about whether Marie-Simon-Pierre’s original diagnosis was correct. But in a statement Friday, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints said Vatican-appointed doctors had “scrupulously” studied the case and determined that her cure had no scientific explanation.
John Paul was adored by Catholics, but he did not escape scrutiny, since many of the thousands of sexual abuse cases that emerged last year concerned crimes or cover-ups that occurred under his watch. Vatican officials have said there was nothing in John Paul’s record that called into question his path to beatification.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
15 Comments
lets rejoice for he deserves it.godwin kizito frm nigeria.
February 3, 2011 at 5:39 am
Pope John Paul II should be a Saint. Iwas confiirmed into the Catholic Religion when he became Pope. I have Mircales happening to me in the United States.
I live in Wilmington, Delaware. Not one Priest or the Bishop with confirm my Miracles. The Crusifix at Corpus Christy Church is Elsmere Delaware is bleeding
at the nails and where he was pierced. Why is the Priests and Bishop Malooley
not paying attention to what I am saying. The material can be found in the Dedication or the Articles of the Church. Lord, God the Father of Ambraham, Issac and Jacob has spokent to me. Everyone should go to Church and bring food for the hungry. We are taught Mircales do happen in Church. It is a sin that no one is acknowleging them let alone not researching them. There was a Billlboard sign reading something like this:
Hey,
Time is rnning out and I need to talk to you.
God
I have given some of the Cathoic Church’s a picture of the Cursifix inside Corpus Christy Church. And I still have no sucess within the Priest.
April 8, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I am a catholic also, and try to attend daily mass, but like a lot of people I can not accept this Pope being canonized a saint. The Vatican it seems still doesn’t get it. Hello, sexual abuse scandal, and a lot of this happen under Pope John Paul 11′ s reign. Can someone send the Vatican that bit of news.
January 15, 2011 at 4:54 pm
For you and all who have posted simular comments, i have a response. First and foremost we need to be advised of FACTS before we feed on all the media has tried to show us over the course of the years. These FACTS include that the “sex scandal” was handled in the church’s way of handling the issue, when there was an issue. Being head of the Catholic Church the Pope follows the orders of the Catholic Church and if we also want to follow the Catholic religion that we claim, we have to trust in what the church does or this may well be the reason that we have become the world we have become. If we cant even trust in our Pope who represents Peter than where do we stand? I believe that there is no doubt Pope John Paul II should be canonized, if the miracles required have proved this who are we to stop what God knows needs to happen?
January 19, 2011 at 12:40 pm
@ Miguel: “we have to trust in what the what the church does”…Put your trust in God, not in Man.
March 16, 2011 at 8:15 am
Thanks for your thought on it. I dont think the sexual abuses by others have a point to run aganst the holiness of his personal life. He as a person was really struggling to leave a holy life and according to human jdgement he hit the mark. No wonder the Lord has allowed him to work miracles. Remember the church goes ahead to use ddoctors who are atheists to prove these miralces, so there is no case of bias.
Actualy u could also request him for a miracle.
April 17, 2011 at 1:15 pm
I could see more sainthood in the common man in the street that helps others than on the Late Pope John II. No way – he deserves sainthood. and by the way i am a caholic – not a roman catholic – that has never believed in the Popehood.
January 15, 2011 at 3:00 pm
I am a catholic but cannot accept sainthood for Pope John Paul II.- why is everyone forgetting that it was him who turned his head while all the sexual abuse was going on in the church. He ordered priests who were in trouble to be moved around and while some people take offense that he was the one that ordered the relocations it might have been ordered from down in the chain of command – if that is so he is still guilty for not doing his job as head of the church. This is not correct.
January 15, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Neem Karoli Baba … known to many as Maharaji … he is a wonderful Saint
January 15, 2011 at 1:10 am
The pope and the entire church as all full of B.S.
January 15, 2011 at 12:45 am
No doubt John Paul II was a revolutionary. But this current Pope…… don’t like him at all.
January 15, 2011 at 12:27 am
The Catholic Church spends more time and money researching and debunking miracles than any other organization. The people who research these things have the courage to deny beatification to people with the status of the late pope. When their findings are that something miraculous occurred, I am inclined to agree with them.
January 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Anti Pope Benedict XVI needs to do a fast track on John Paul II . John Paul II is the smilely face of the revolution that started in the 1960′s in the Catholic Church. Benedict is a dismal failure in his attempt to futher the revolutoin.
January 14, 2011 at 10:56 am
Anti Pope Benedict X
January 14, 2011 at 10:53 am
Hmm, i’ll take that “miracle” with a grain of salt.
January 14, 2011 at 9:02 am