Jan. 14: Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1 at a ceremony in Rome, the Vatican said on Friday. Beatification is the penultimate step on the road to sainthood. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI on Friday ordered the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, to issue a decree confirming that John Paul II performed a miracle when he cured a 44-year-old French nun, Marie Pierre Simon, who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
One miracle is needed for beatification, while a second miracle is needed to make him a saint. “On January 11, at an ordinary session of cardinals and bishops from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, they issued a unanimous pronouncement affirming that Sister Marie Pierre Simon’s recovery was wrought by God in a scientifically inexplicable way, following John Paul II’s intercession,” said the Vatican. The purported miracle occurred just a few months after the death on April 2, 2005, of John Paul II. Medical and theological experts have credited John Paul II with the healing of the nun, whose order prayed to him after he died.
Benedict will preside over the May 1 ceremony, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Rome to celebrate one of the most popular Popes of all time. The beatification will make the late pontiff “the Blessed John Paul II”. Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to possible sainthood just weeks after his death, responding to the chants of “Santo Subito!” or “Sainthood immediately!” that erupted during his funeral.
Coming just over six years after his death, John Paul II’s beatification is extremely rapid in Vatican terms.