ABOUT POPE JOHN PAUL 2
BBC REPORT
EUROPE
2 July
2013 Last updated
at 15:58
John Paul II 'set for sainthood'
with second miracle
John Paul II could be declared a saint this year
after a Vatican committee approved a second miracle attributed to the Polish
pope's intercession.
The
Congregation for the Causes of Saints ruled an "inexplicable
recovery" on 1 May 2011 was due to the late Pope's intercession, Ansa
reported.
Earlier
that same day he had been beatified after a first miracle was attributed to his
intervention.
Pope
Francis must now give his approval before a canonisation date is set.
Canonisation
is the final step in the official process that declares a deceased person to be
a saint.
Speedy process
At
a plenary meeting of the Congregation on Tuesday, cardinals and bishops mooted
a canonisation ceremony taking place in December, sources told Ansa.
One
possible date would be 8 December, on which Catholics celebrate the feast of
the Immaculate Conception, which this year falls on a Sunday.
John
Paul II could be canonised at the same time as John XXIII, Vatican sources
suggested. Venerated by Catholics as "the good pope", John XXIII was
elected in 1958 and convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962, but died the
following year before it was finished.
Canonisation
requires the attribution of one further miracle to the intercession of the
candidate after they have been beatified.
The
Vatican has not revealed details about the second miracle in John Paul II's
case.
It
was reportedly deemed an "inexplicable recovery" by a panel of
doctors before being approved last month by a board of the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints' theologians.
John
Paul II died in 2005 aged 84 and was beatified by his successor Benedict XVI in
May 2011.
Among
a crowd hundreds of thousands strong on St Peter's Square was French nun Marie
Simon-Pierre, who says she was cured of Parkinson's Disease after praying for
the intervention of the late pope little more than a month after he died.
Some
questioned the Church's speed in beatifying John Paul II just six years after
his death.
Although
widely regarded as one of the great popes of modern times, his 26-year
pontificate was tarnished by his handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal
that has rocked the global Church.
Critics
say other of the Church's deep-seated problems - such as its dysfunctional
management and financial scandals at the Vatican bank - stem from shortcomings
of his pontificate.
John
Paul II reformed the sainthood process in 1983, making it faster, simpler, and
cheaper. The office of "Devil's advocate" - an official whose job was
to try to knock down the case for sainthood - was eliminated, and the required
number of miracles was dropped.
The
idea was to lift up contemporary role models of holiness in order to convince a
jaded secular world that sanctity is alive in the here and now, says veteran
Vatican analyst John Allen.
The
result was that John Paul II beatified and canonised more people than all
previous popes combined.
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