As of 10:40 today, 1 May 2011,
the Feast of Divine Mercy, John Paul II is Blessed. He was proclaimed
thus by his successor Benedict XVI in front of a huge crowd of faithful
who filled St Peter's Square, all along Via della
Conciliation and most of Via Vittorio Emanuele II.
Tens of thousands of
pilgrims gathered in some areas of the city (the Circus Maximus, St.
Anastasia, ... ..) linking live to the square via Giant TV screens.
In addition to the "pope 's people", hundred of cardinals,
patriarchs, bishops, thousands of priests and 90 ambassadors and
delegations representing countries worldwide were present in St Peter's
Square.
After Card. Agostino Vallini, the pope's vicar for Rome, retold
the life story Karol Wojtyla, Benedict XVI spoke the formula with which
he proclaimed John Paul II Blessed setting for October 22
(the date of the beginning of his pontificate) the date of his
liturgical memory.
Soon after the giant tapestry with the smiling figure
of the Polish pope suspended from the central balcony of the basilica,
was unveiled.
Then, two religious sisters - one from the hospital Bambin
Gesu, the other Sr. Marie, cured of Parkinson's disease through the
intercession of John Paul II - presented Pope Benedict XVI
with a relic of the new Blessed, a phial containing the blood of the
Polish pope kept all this time. Immediately after the two nuns solemnly
placed the relic beside the altar.
The crowd went into raptures, with tears of joy, prayers,
applause, waving flags from all nations: first among them Poland, then
Canada, Australia, the United States, Brazil, ... There were also many
groups and movements with banners phrases of the great pope.
A long
banner signed by Communion and Liberation, carried out along the
colonnade of Bernini, inscribed "Do not be afraid: open the doors to
Christ!"
While others expressed their love for Pope John Paul II, and
still others carried the name of the city of origin of the various
groups.
In his homily, Benedict XVI recalled the "pain" and "grace" the
day of the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the "discreet speed" (for
so it pleased the Lord ") of his cause of
beatification.
The pope noted that the beatification takes place on the Feast
of Divine Mercy (wanted by Wojtyla and tied to the revelations of Polish
Saint Faustina Kowalska), on the eve of which, six years ago, John Paul
II died. It is also the first day of May, the month dedicated to the
devotion to Mary, and St. Joseph the Worker.
"John Paul II - said the pontiff - is blessed because of his faith, a strong, generous and apostolic faith.... The eternal bliss of John Paul II, that the Church has to proclaim the joy, is all in the words of Christ: Blessed
are you, Simon” and “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
come to believe!” It is the beatitude of faith, which John Paul II also
received as a gift from God the Father for the building up of Christ’s
Church”.
"The beatitude of faith - he continued - has
its model in Mary, and all of us rejoice that the beatification of John
Paul II takes place on this first day of the month of Mary, beneath the
maternal gaze of the one who by her faith sustained the faith of the
Apostles and constantly sustains the faith of their successors,
especially those called to occupy the Chair of Peter"
Much of the homily is dedicated to the bond between Wojtyla and the Virgin Mary: "
Karol Wojtyła took part in the Second Vatican Council, first as an
auxiliary Bishop and then as Archbishop of Kraków.
He was fully aware
that the Council’s decision to devote the last chapter of its
Constitution on the Church to Mary meant that the Mother of the Redeemer
is held up as an image and model of holiness for every Christian and
for the entire Church".
This relationship is summed up "in the episcopal
and later the papal coat-of-arms of Karol Wojtyła: a golden cross with
the letter “M” on the lower right and the motto “Totus tuus”,
drawn from the well-known words of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de
Montfort in which Karol Wojtyła found a guiding light for his life: “Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria – I belong entirely to you, and all that I have is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart” (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 266).
Quoting from John Paul II’s testament, Benedict XVI said that
he is the pope who brought "the Church into the Third Millennium",
bringing to fruition the Second Vatican Council. "
I am
convinced that it will long be granted to the new generations to draw
from the treasures that this Council of the twentieth century has
lavished upon us. As a Bishop who took part in the Council from the
first to the last day, I desire to entrust this great patrimony to all
who are and will be called in the future to put it into practice. For my
part, I thank the Eternal Shepherd, who has enabled me to serve this
very great cause in the course of all the years of my Pontificate".
This "cause" is "the same one that John Paul II has stated in
his first solemn Mass in St. Peter's Square, with the memorable words: “Do
not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!” What the
newly-elected Pope asked of everyone, he was himself the first to do:
society, culture, political and economic systems he opened up to Christ,
turning back with the strength of a titan – a strength which came to
him from God – a tide which appeared irreversible”.
Then continuing in Polish, he added: " By his
witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human
charisma, this exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the
world not to be afraid to be called Christian, to belong to the Church,
to speak of the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to fear the truth,
because truth is the guarantee of liberty".
And returning to Italian, " he gave us the strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is Redemptor hominis, the Redeemer of man. This was the theme of his first encyclical, and the thread which runs though all the others".
" When Karol Wojtyła ascended to the throne of Peter, - explained the pope - he
brought with him a deep understanding of the difference between Marxism
and Christianity, based on their respective visions of man. This was
his message: man is the way of the Church, and Christ is the way of man.
With this message, which is the great legacy of the Second Vatican
Council and of its “helmsman”, the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, John
Paul II led the People of God across the threshold of the Third
Millennium, which thanks to Christ he was able to call “the threshold of
hope”.
Throughout the long journey of preparation for the great Jubilee
he directed Christianity once again to the future, the future of God,
which transcends history while nonetheless directly affecting it. He
rightly reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in
some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress.
He
restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope, to be
lived in history in an “Advent” spirit, in a personal and communitarian
existence directed to Christ, the fullness of humanity and the
fulfillment of all our longings for justice and peace"
At the conclusion of the homily, Benedict XVI - who has always
referred to John Paul II as his "loved and revered" "beloved
predecessor", - recalled his own personal experience of closeness to
John Paul II: "I had known him earlier and had esteemed
him, but for twenty-three years, beginning in 1982 after he called me to
Rome to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I
was at his side and came to revere him all the more. My own service was
sustained by his spiritual depth and by the richness of his insights.
His example of prayer continually impressed and edified me: he remained
deeply united to God even amid the many demands of his ministry. Then
too, there was his witness in suffering: the Lord gradually stripped him
of everything, yet he remained ever a “rock”, as Christ desired. His
profound humility, grounded in close union with Christ, enabled him to
continue to lead the Church and to give to the world a message which
became all the more eloquent as his physical strength declined. In this
way he lived out in an extraordinary way the vocation of every priest
and bishop to become completely one with Jesus, whom he daily receives
and offers in the Eucharist".
Recalling all those occasions when Pope John Paul II blessed pilgrims from his window, Benedict XVI concluded: "
Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed!
Continue, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s
people, Amen.
The
mortal remains of the new Blessed will be exposed to the veneration of
the faithful until all pilgrims to Rome, who wish to do so have prayed
before the coffin, then it will be placed under the altar in the chapel
of St. Sebastian.