The process to make the late Pope John Paul II a saint begins this evening with a Latin ceremony in Rome to open the “cause”.
The late Pope, who himself created more saints than any of his predecessors, is being fast-tracked to sainthood in a process that begins with tonight’s solemn session at the St John Lateran Basilica, the cathedral church of the Rome diocese.
The canonisation process normally begins at least five years after a person’s death. But the late Pope, who died on April 2 and whose funeral Mass was interrupted by chants of “Santo! Santo!” and “Santo subito!” or “Sainthood immediately!” from the crowds, is expected to reach the first stage of beatification in record time.
Even Mother Teresa, fast-tracked by John Paul II in a process that begin two years after she died, was beatified only after four years of investigations.
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One miracle will be needed for beatification and another for canonisation, but the Postulator of the Cause, Mongisgnor Slawomir Oder, formerly a judge in the Rome diocesan tribunal, has already received details of a miracle that could turn out to be authentic.
According to the official website for the cause, which has had 22,000 visitors since it launched on June 19, prayer vigils are being held around the world to support the cause.
Personal testimonies verifying the late Pope’s “heroic virtues”, his holiness and reputation, along with testimonies from people who met the Pope, have already been received.
More than 100 e-mails testifying to the Pope’s virtues are arriving daily, with most of the messages from Latin America, Italy, Poland and the rest of Europe.
Tonight’s process will begin at 7pm with all the clerics involved swearing at the ceremony to do their work “faithfully and diligently” and in secret, and not to accept “any type of gift” that might corrupt the process.
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Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope’s Vicar for the Rome diocese, will preside.
Monsignor Oder, who is Polish-born, will hand over a list of several dozen witnesses who will testify. Also attending the service will be the outgoing Archbishop of Krakow Cardinal Franciszek Macharski and his successor, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the late Pope’s personal secretary.
In an interview yesterday with the Polish Press Agency, Archbishop Dziwisz said that he hoped Pope Benedict XVI would announce John Paul had been made a saint when he travels to World Youth Day this August in Cologne, Germany.
“The chances of that happening are close to zero,” he acknowledged, but he added: “The world already canonised John Paul II, we are now only waiting for the final confirmation of this fact.”
Even if the Pope is not canonised by August, he could be well on the way to beatification. The biggest delay will occur, not because of any doubts over his holiness, but because all his writings must be read and examined.
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The late Pope’s output was prodigious. He was the author of 14 encyclicals, 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 45 apostolic letters, and five books that appeared during his papacy.
Any faults he had will be examined. Although the job of “Devil’s Advocate” was abolished when John Paul II modernised the process in 1983, doubts about his life must still be investigated, in spite of a growing consensus in the Roman Catholic Church that the “people” have already made him a saint and the canonisation process is almost a formality.
The Rev Giuseppe D’Alonzo, promoter of justice for the Diocese of Rome, who will investigate any problems that do emerge. He said in an interview on Monday that he was neither for nor against beatification.
But when asked his personal opinion about John Paul’s merits, he conceded: “It’s the opinion that ordinary people have, simple people who we all saw in St Peter’s Square when there was the funeral Mass.”
John Paul II created 482 saints and beatified a further 1,338. Among those he canonised was Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, who died in 1975.
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Early indications are that Pope Benedict XVI will take a more measured approach. He is not expected to attend this evening’s ceremony.
He has already blocked temporarily the cause of an early 20th century French priest, the Reverend Leon Dehon, who was scheduled to be beatified on April 24 by John Paul II, after it emerged in France that he had been the author of inflammatory anti-Semitic texts.
Father Dehon, founder of the Sacred Heart of Jesus religious order and who died in 1925, wrote that the Jews were “thirsty for gold” and “united in their hatred of Christ.”