Word: sainthood
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...doubt that Pope Benedict XVI made a pilgrimage Saturday to the birthplace of a saint. The only real question is when that sainthood will be made official. The date of birth, of course, we already know to be May 18, 1920, when Karol Wojtyla was born in a humble two-story home in the town of Wadowice, in the rolling countryside of southern Poland. He died 85 years later in Rome as the most widely beloved - and arguably most influential - pope of the past millennium. But exactly when the Catholic Church will officially recognize Pope John Paul...
...Benedict disappointed those hoping that this four-day trip to Poland would bring an automatic proclamation of beatification, the final step before starting the canonization process toward sainthood. Still, he offered some hope on Saturday that John Paul could rise to saint status faster than any figure in modern church history. In one of the rare moments when he strayed from his prepared text, Benedict told a Polish crowd he hoped that "providence in the near future will offer us the chance to enjoy the beatification and canonization of John Paul...
...waved the normal five-year waiting period after death for the opening of the beatification process. John Paul had done the same with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who was beatified quicker than anyone before, just six years after her 1997 death. The quickest to get all the way to sainthood under current procedures was Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, who died in 1975, and was canonized...
...John Paul may very well get the nod even faster, especially if all the prayers have a say. On Friday evening, the new pope encouraged young people in Krakow to continue their ritual of praying for John Paul's sainthood the second day of every month, at the hour of his death, saying that the ritual "supports those working on his Cause." Benedict told the crowd Saturday in the central square of Wadowice that he will be praying that John Paul's sainthood comes "soon." That got big cheers from the hometown crowd, chants of "We Thank You! We Thank...
...Sending a mere mortal down the road toward eternal sainthood of the church requires two essential elements: that the candidate lived a saintly life of "heroic virtue," and that at least one bonafide miracle can be linked to him after his death. That would lead to beatification, which if followed by another confirmed miracle, would lead to canonization. Father Peter Gumpel, an official with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, believes this pope wants to let the normal process run its course. Asked when, Gumpel said he is not a fortune teller, but that it is probably "a question...