John Paul Takes Step Toward Sainthood
Andrew Medichini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Cardinals kissed the casket of late Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica following his beatification on Sunday.
Vincenzo Pinto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Priests walked ahead of a procession as it arrived in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday.
“He was witness to the tragic age of big ideologies, totalitarian regimes, and from their passing John Paul II embraced the harsh suffering, marked by tension and contradictions, of the transition of the modern age toward a new phase of history, showing constant concern that the human person be its protagonist,” Benedict said, speaking before the largest crowds to swell Saint Peter’s Square since John Paul’s funeral in 2005.
At the Mass, Benedict declared John Paul “blessed,” meaning that he is able to be publicly venerated. He also greeted Sister Marie Simone-Pierre, a French nun who said that she recovered from Parkinson’s disease after praying to John Paul — a cure that Benedict declared miraculous. An additional miracle is required for sainthood.
An estimated 1.5 million people turned out for Sunday’s celebration, many of them camping out overnight to be sure to participate. During the Mass, a tapestry of John Paul based on a 1989 photograph was unfurled from the balcony of Saint Peter’s, showing the Polish pontiff with a twinkle in his eye and a slightly wry smile, the John Wayne of the modern papacy.
Indeed, in its full-voiced celebration of the life of John Paul, who led the church for 26 years before his death from Parkinson’s Disease, presiding over the fall of communism and the rise of the global church, the festive Mass could not but underscore the comparatively quiet and often troubled tenor of Benedict’s six-year-old papacy.
Benedict inherited a sex abuse scandal that first came to light in the final years of John Paul’s reign, prompting some victims and critics to oppose the beatification and to question its speed, the fastest in modern times. Benedict waived the traditional five-year wait to begin the beatification trial, which began just weeks after John Paul’s death.
But in spite of the scandal and what some see as questions in the historical record, for many, the late pope’s memory remains very real. “I miss him, so very much,” said Cristiana Arru, a lawyer from Rome who grew up near the Vatican and came often to see the pope celebrate Mass. Her eyes welled up with tears. “I still feel as though I’ve been orphaned.”
“Anyone who was in the piazza when he spoke felt as though he was speaking directly to them,” she said. “He was a very empathetic person.”
In a 21st-century twist on an ancient tradition, Benedict kissed a reliquary in the form of an olive branch, holding a test tube filled with some of John Paul’s blood, saved by a Rome hospital in case the former pontiff ever needed a blood transfusion.
After the Mass, thousands waited in line to enter the Basilica to kiss the closed casket holding John Paul, which will be on view overnight before being placed in a side chapel next to Michelangelo’s “Pietà.”
At the Mass, Benedict declared John Paul “blessed,” meaning that he is able to be publicly venerated. He also greeted Sister Marie Simone-Pierre, a French nun who said that she recovered from Parkinson’s disease after praying to John Paul — a cure that Benedict declared miraculous. An additional miracle is required for sainthood.
An estimated 1.5 million people turned out for Sunday’s celebration, many of them camping out overnight to be sure to participate. During the Mass, a tapestry of John Paul based on a 1989 photograph was unfurled from the balcony of Saint Peter’s, showing the Polish pontiff with a twinkle in his eye and a slightly wry smile, the John Wayne of the modern papacy.
Indeed, in its full-voiced celebration of the life of John Paul, who led the church for 26 years before his death from Parkinson’s Disease, presiding over the fall of communism and the rise of the global church, the festive Mass could not but underscore the comparatively quiet and often troubled tenor of Benedict’s six-year-old papacy.
Benedict inherited a sex abuse scandal that first came to light in the final years of John Paul’s reign, prompting some victims and critics to oppose the beatification and to question its speed, the fastest in modern times. Benedict waived the traditional five-year wait to begin the beatification trial, which began just weeks after John Paul’s death.
But in spite of the scandal and what some see as questions in the historical record, for many, the late pope’s memory remains very real. “I miss him, so very much,” said Cristiana Arru, a lawyer from Rome who grew up near the Vatican and came often to see the pope celebrate Mass. Her eyes welled up with tears. “I still feel as though I’ve been orphaned.”
“Anyone who was in the piazza when he spoke felt as though he was speaking directly to them,” she said. “He was a very empathetic person.”
In a 21st-century twist on an ancient tradition, Benedict kissed a reliquary in the form of an olive branch, holding a test tube filled with some of John Paul’s blood, saved by a Rome hospital in case the former pontiff ever needed a blood transfusion.
After the Mass, thousands waited in line to enter the Basilica to kiss the closed casket holding John Paul, which will be on view overnight before being placed in a side chapel next to Michelangelo’s “Pietà.”
No comments:
Post a Comment