Translated material
Speed is holy
The beatification of John Paul II will take place in violation of church regulations
The Roman Catholic Church is eager to beatify Pope John Paul II. Almost immediately after the death of Karol Wojtyla, the new Pope Benedict XVI, contrary to traditions requiring at least two years of “exposure,” announced his beatification, and yesterday the Vatican, represented by a special commission, began studying evidence of miracles performed by the former pontiff. The commission, meeting Tuesday evening in Rome's Basilica of San Giovanni in Literano, includes high-ranking clergy who will discuss the reality of the miracles that happened both during the life of John Paul II and after his death. All participants in the meeting took an oath and promised not to accept bribes or gifts that could influence their decision.To add the name of the late Pope to the list of blessed ones, the commission must prove the fact of only one miracle he performed. Only after this will confirmation of the second miracle of John Paul II be required for the process to be fully completed and canonized. In addition, members of the commission in the Vatican will study information about the life of Karol Wojtyla, get acquainted with his archive and personal correspondence. All surviving letters, even those that were written long before the enthronement of the Pope, will be carefully studied by skeptics to see if they contain even the slightest hint of heretical thoughts.
June 28 was not chosen by chance as the date for the actual start of beatification. Fans of John Paul II emphasize that the beatification process begins on the eve of the Catholic feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, the latter of whom was the patron of the famous pontiff.
During his pontificate, John Paul II himself beatified 1,338 Christians and canonized 482. Including the famous Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose canonization, just as in the case of the Pope himself, took place with serious violations of church regulations. According to Vatican rules, five years must pass after a person's death before the church begins the canonization process. In the case of Mother Teresa, the process took exactly five years, and in the case of John Paul it is unlikely to last more than six months. Otherwise, the haste with which the current head of the Roman Catholic Church, Benedict XVI, began to canonize his predecessor is completely unjustified.
Such a violation of tradition, according to the Vatican, is associated with a large number of appeals from believers demanding the canonization of the Pope and claiming that they became participants in or witnesses to the miracles he performed. “We receive a hundred or even more letters a day from all over the world, even from non-believers,” says Polish priest Slawomir Oder, who is leading the campaign for the beatification of John Paul. Oder himself, during the process of beatifying Karol Wojtyla, will play the role of a “postulator” who must present evidence of the Pope’s holiness and defend his right to be canonized.
The role of the “devil’s advocate,” the person who must challenge claims of miracles, is assigned to the Roman priest Giuseppe D’Alonzo, who in one of his interviews, answering a question about his own opinion about canonizing a Pole, modestly noted that it was not for him to decide . “My task is only to verify the truth,” said D’Alonzo, who, however, speaks very warmly of the activities of the penultimate pontiff.
Immediately after the end of the commission meeting, a meeting of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will begin. At this stage, not only the Catholic clergy, but also representatives of other faiths and even secular persons can take part in the discussion of the candidacy. And only according to the final decision of the congregation, Pope Benedict XVI will have to sign the official act of proclamation of the new blessed.