Pope John Paul II, regarded as the most significant Pope of the modern era, may be declared a saint as early as next year, according to a recent report. A report in the London Times suggests that the late Pope has now been credited with three miracles, proof of which will enable Pope Benedict XVI to first beatify and then canonise him.
Last weekend Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow by Rome Reports, a television news agency, that the diocesan phase of assessing the cure was almost complete.
Cardinal Martins said that he expected this process to be complete by April. A formal announcement is expected on April 2, the second anniversary of John Paul's death, and senior Vatican sources expect him to be declared a saint within 18 months.
Pope Benedict has made it clear in a document released last year that he will not emulate John Paul, in terms of creating saints. However, he fast-tracked the cause of John Paul II, waiving a rule under which the Vatican normally waits five years after the candidate's death before launching the process.
Among the miracles is the curing of a nun of Parkinson's disease, the degenerative illness which plagued the last decade of the late Pontiff's life. The French nun, who is not named, was suffering from the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease when members of her convent prayed to the spirit of John Paul to ask God for her recovery in May 2005.
Several hours after the prayers began, the nun said that she could write without difficulty and within two weeks she rose from her bed, reporting 'no more pain, no rigidity.'
Candidates being considered for sainthood must not only have led a virtuous life but also to have been responsible for a medically inexplicable cure after their death by responding to prayers from the afterlife.
Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the chief postulator of John Paul's beatification, said last week that he was examining three miracles altogether. There is a second elsewhere in Europe and a third in South America. However, he said he could not be drawn on whether they had been authenticated.
John Paul is likely to be declared 'venerable' in the coming months, and, pending a satisfactory outcome of the investigation, Pope Benedict is likely to beatify John Paul in the autumn.
Meanwhile, a new book about the late pope reveals some surprising details about his life.
The book, A Life With Karol, is written by his former secretary, Monsignor, now Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, and is to be published over the next few days.
It reveals how John Paul II secretly skipped town for over 100 skiing trips in the Italian mountains but - dressed in jacket, beret and sunglasses - was almost never recognised.
According to an excerpt published in the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, in the winter of 1981, the Pope, his secretary and two of his Polish aides decided to make a "getaway" to the mountains from the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo.
They packed into a car owned by one of the priests, in order not to raise suspicions, and when they passed the Swiss Guard post one prelate opened wide a newspaper to hide the pontiff in the back. Then they drove to the central Italian ski town of Ovindoli without an escort, winding through mountain towns and carefully respecting the speed limits.
The book also reveals that the late Pontiff seriously thought about resigning due to ill health in 2000, five years before he died and also contemplated changing Church law so that pontiffs would retire at 80.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce