Pope John Paul II to Be Beatified May 1, by Rachel Donadio, New York Times, January 14, 2011

Pope John Paul II to Be Beatified May 1

By Rachel Donadio
New York Times
January 14, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/world/europe/15pope.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, at John Paul II’s 2005 funeral.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI moved his beloved predecessor one step closer to sainthood on Friday, confirming a miracle by John Paul II and setting May 1, the first Sunday after Easter, as the date of his beatification.

The designation means he is considered "blessed" and can be publicly venerated. Sainthood would follow after the confirmation of one more miracle.

Thousands are expected to attend the beatification ceremony. Benedict is expected to celebrate the Mass himself, a much-needed bright spot in his papacy, which in recent months has been weathering a sexual abuse scandal in Europe and violence against Christians in the Middle East.

Wildly popular, John Paul was seen as a man of his time, a Pole who marshaled the Catholic Church's energies to help end the cold war. But he was also criticized for how he handled a sexual abuse crisis that burgeoned in the United States as early as the 1980s.

At John Paul's funeral in April 2005, the faithful filled Saint Peter's Square, some carrying banners reading "Santo subito," or "Sainthood now." Benedict honored their wishes, putting John Paul on a fast track to sainthood, waiving the traditional five-year waiting period for the process to begin, but insisting on a thorough investigation into his life.

Benedict said Friday in a decree that a French nun had been miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease thanks to John Paul's intercession. John Paul himself had Parkinson's. In a statement, Benedict said that a Vatican-appointed committee of cardinals, bishops, doctors and theologians had determined that the recovery of Sister Marie Pierre Simon from Parkinson's was "miraculous" and "scientifically inexplicable."

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow and John Paul's longtime personal secretary, said he was thrilled at the news. He said he was "happy" that the wish for "santo subito, that people have been praying for, is finally coming true."

John Paul's 26-year papacy was full of milestones. In 1979, as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, he became the first non-Italian to become pope in four centuries. He was the first pope to visit a mosque and a synagogue, and on his watch the church issued its first new catechism in nearly 500 years. In 2000, he asked pardon for the church's sins against Jews, women, heretics and minorities.

His popularity grew after he survived an assassination attempt by a Turkish gunman in 1981, and in his later years, his slow decline from Parkinson's disease was seen as a poignant example of one man facing death without fear.

But some dark clouds hang over his papacy. John Paul was supportive of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican priest who founded a powerful religious order, the Legionaries of Christ, and who was found to have abused seminarians and fathered several children.

At the height of the abuse scandal last spring, Benedict's defenders said that when he lead of the Vatican's doctrinal and disciplinary office, Benedict wanted to open an investigation into Father Maciel, but that cardinals close to John Paul blocked him. The Vatican reopened an investigation into the Legionaries of Christ in 2004, when John Paul was in serious decline. Last May, the Vatican strongly condemned Father Maciel, who died in 2008, and placed the Legion under Benedict's direct control.

Defenders of John Paul said he was dismissive of early reports of abuse by priests because he considered it a tactic used by the Communist Party in Eastern Europe to weaken the church.

The news of the beatification was warmly received in his native Poland.

"I remember kneeling beside his open coffin in St. Peter's Basilica," said Kazimierz Nycz, the archbishop of Warsaw. "It never even crossed my mind to pray for him. I've always prayed directly to him. I've always known he is a saint."